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TWO STRANGE 
ADVENTURERS 

or A Marvellous 
Coincidence.... 

(originally published under the title of 

“A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE”) 


/by 

KINAHAN 'CORNWALLIS 


AUTHOR OF 

“the song of AMERICA AND COLUMBUS “ 

/ “adrift with a vengeance” 

“the conquest of MEXICO AND PERU,” ETC. 



F. TENNYSON NEELY ^ ^ 114 FIFTH 'AVENUE 

NEW YORK ^ ^ ^ PUBLISHER ^ ^ MDCCCXCVH 




/SO 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


PART I. 


CHAPTER I. 

New Jersey has always been a target for wits, 
and a liberally slandered State ; but it invariably 
found a champion in Mr. Peter Livingston. Yet 
he was a New Yorker, who only lived there in 
summer. He was wont to say : “ I ought to have 
been born a Jerseyman. I like to see the red 
Jersey mud on my boots, and I admire Jersey 
justice.” There is no accounting for tastes, as 
was said of the woman who kissed the cow. 

Excepting Jersey lightning, he seemed to be on 
the best of terms with everything there, even the 
mosquitoes; and when a Wall Street wag of his 
acquaintance, who claimed to have once distin- 
guished himself by being alternately a bull, a bear 
and a jackass the same day, asked him if he ever 
went after them with a shot gun, he replied with 
quiet humor, “ Oh, yes, we call them snipe.” 

He was popular with his neighbors, of high and 
low degree, and whether they called him “Squire” 
out of respect or “Pete” out of good-fellowship, 
he was equally disposed to be friendly and affable, 


6 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


despite a natural tendency to stiffness and frigidity. 
Moreover, he was conspicuous for his contributions 
to charitable institutions and the campaign funds 
of his own political party in the State. 

One reason, however, for this generosity and 
this courting of popularity was that he had political 
aspirations. A Scotchman would have said that 
he had a bee in his bonnet. This weakness alone 
had led him to make his legal residence in New 
Jersey instead of New York. 

He wanted to be Governor of the State, for the 
sake of distinction, and no other office would have 
been acceptable to him. He was a cream-laid 
politician. It was harmless vanity, but a case of 
aut CcBsar aut nullus. 

The Jersey politicians knew his weakness, and 
bled him freely whenever they wanted money. 
But he was entirely too refined and superior a man, 
socially, intellectually, and in other respects, to 
have had much, if any, chance of reaching the 
governorship ; for mediocrity, represented by the 
masses, is always jealous of superiority. He was 
not a man of the people, in the popular sense. It 
was that feeling — that antagonism between medi- 
ocrity and superiority — that prevented Daniel Web- 
ster from being nominated for the Presidency of 
the United States. He was unquestionably a great 
man, but the greatest of men have their weaknesses, 
and losing that nomination broke Webster’s heart. 

“ I guess,” said a rival for the governorship, who 
was afterwards elected — a man with a face like a 
baked apple, an apple-jack red nose and a quid of 
tobacco which made him spit like a water cart — 
“ Livingston wants to be Governor to please his 
old woman. She’s put him up to it so that she 
may queen it in the State House. She wants to be 
at the tip-top of everything here below. There’s 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


1 

always a woman in the case, as the Frenchj’udge 
said, or a nigger somewhere in the fence.” 

But although the suspicion was correct as to his 
wife's ambition, Mr. Livingston's home life was 
like a crown of glory to him. He was a happy 
man. 


CHAPTER II. 

It was in the quiet and rambling town of 
Orange, in that small part of the vast domain 
of Uncle Sam which is humorously said to be out 
of the United States, and consecrated to apple-jack, 
chills and mosquitoes — Orange, with its wealth of 
foliage, its blooming gardens, and its green hill- 
sides patched with cultivated crops, and dotted 
here and there with picturesque villas, weather- 
beaten farm-houses, browsing cattle and simple 
cottage homes, yet less than an hour's walk from 
busy and bustling Newark, with its bee-hive work- 
shops, and clanging, whizzing and whirring manu- 
factories, capped by red brick chimneys and fes- 
tooned with smoke — that a spacious and elegant 
mansion, the summer home of the Livingstons, a 
wealthy and refined New York family of high 
social position, was, late one sultry afternoon, in 
the year preceding the panic of 1837, the scene of 
painful excitement. 

So long a sentence almost merits sentence of 
death, but pardon me, and remember that there is 
nothing bad in this world that might not be worse, 
just as there is nothing good that might not be 
better. I once read a sentence by William M. 
Evarts, and it seemed as if I had got hold of an 
executioner's coil of rope. But no reader can be 
talked to death, A book can be shut up. 


8 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

Mr. Peter Livingston was the head of the house, 
and besides being a member of one of the oldest and 
most distinguished families in the Empire State, he 
was a man of far more than ordinary culture and 
attainments. He had graduated with honors at 
Columbia College in his native city when he was 
only eighteen, and after studying law in the office 
of an uncle who had won celebrity in the profes- 
sion, succeeded his father as principal of a mercan- 
tile firm of high standing, which he had established 
thirty years before, a position he still retained, 
honored and respected, for he was what the Italians 
call a galantuomo — an honest man — and moreover 
a vestryman of Trinity Church ; while to sterling 
integrity of character he added a laudable degree 
of public spirit, of which there is a sad lack in the 
community at large. “His life was gentle, and 
the elements so mixed in him, that nature might 
stand up and say to all the world, ^ This was a 
man H " Yet Montaigne said the most virtuous 
man would ten times at least in the course of his 
life be considered a fit subject for the gallows were 
he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the 
rigid scrutiny of the laws of his country, and cer- 
tain it is that there is no virtuous man without some 
vice or weakness, nor any wicked man without 
some virtue, some redeeming point in his character. 

Mrs. Livingston was a De Peyster, and had no 
less family pride than her husband, for the De 
Peysters in her estimation were in nowise inferior 
to the Livingstons, and the Livingstons, all the 
world knew, were of the creme de la creme of New 
York society. Here were two aristocrats under 
the flag of the republic. She had been beautiful 
when a young girl, and now that she was a matron 
of thirty-five her youthful charms still lingered, 
although her face was a little worn and her ex- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


9 

quisite complexion somewhat faded. She had that 
chiseled beauty of feature which American women 
possess far more than Europeans, and not alone a 
beauty of feature but of form which made her a 
pleasant object to contemplate. It is rare to find 
a repulsive face among her sisterhood in the United 
States, yet the expression of hers was unusually 
sweet and refined, and it truly indicated the gentle- 
ness and amiability of her character and the purity 
of her heart. In figure she was rather petites and 
an embodiment of grace and elegance, with a fine 
classical head ; but there was a look of fragility 
about her which is unfortunately too common 
among her sex even in these days when, physically, 
American women, at least in the large cities, are 
greatly the superiors of those who were of their own 
age half or even a quarter of a century ago, owing 
to the greater attention that is paid to hygienic 
laws, particularly with regard to food, fresh air and 
exercise. But overheated houses still do their work 
of mischief, for the close and parching atmosphere 
breathed within doors impairs vitality and the 
power of resisting the cold out of doors, and hence 
consumption gathers a vaster annual harvest than 
it otherwise would. 

Mr. Livingston was a thin, gentlemanly-looking 
man of about five feet ten and forty-five years, 
with a rather swarthy complexion and black hair, 
and keen dark eyes, and by his assiduous yet un- 
obstrusive attentions to his wife it was evident that 
they were lovers still, as married couples ought 
always to be, but which, alas ! they are often not. 

A beautiful sight it is to see the long-married 
lovers of our acquaintance strewing each other s 
path with roses — from which they have removed 
the thorns — on their pilgrimage through life ; and 
sad indeed is the reverse of the picture, where 


J MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


io 

couples are matched but not mated. Happy are 
they who love and are loved in the bond that unites 
them, for marriage to them is bliss, and each feels 
the other so essential to happiness, that when death 
comes to sever them the survivor almost craves 
death too, so overwhelming is the calamity ! The 
deeper the love the more bitter the sting. 

The happy couple here described had been mar- 
ried more than twelve years, and had been blessed 
with two children — a son and daughter, the latter 
being a little over eleven and the former under ten 
years. 

The boy — with his big, bright dark eyes, rich 
complexion and wavy brown hair — was as hand- 
some as the son of such a mother might be expected 
to be, and his sister was a little blonde beauty with 
red cheeks, large blue eyes and fine long golden 
hair, flowing like a sunlit waterfall over her shoul- 
ders and down her back. She was one of those 
girls to whom the Italian proverb would apply, — 
Che nasce bella nasce maritata — she who is born 
handsome is born married. 

The cause of the painful excitement referred to 
will be apparent when I say that this only son of 
his parents had left the house about nine in the 
morning of the day in question — after his father 
had driven away on one of his frequent visits to 
New York — and, as it afterwards transpired, joined 
another boy of his acquaintance, who proposed it, 
in going for a sail on the Passaic River, the sequel 
to which was that nine hours afterwards a rough- 
looking man rang the door-bell of the Livingston 
Mansion, and thus delivered himself to the ser- 
vant : 

“Tell your missus that her boy and a young 
chap of about fifteen came to my place this morn- 
ing and hired a sail-boat, saying they was going 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, it 

down the river a bit. I let ’em have it, and they 
went off after paying me fifty cents for an hour. 
But they didn't come back, though four or five 
hours it was since they went, and a tremendous 
high wind had come up, and squally. Says I to 
myself, I guess them young fellows need looking 
after, so I set off in another boat to hunt 'em up, 
and I inquired about 'em as I went along, but I 
couldn’t hear a thing, even after I got away down 
in the bay ; so, after cruising around a while to see 
if I could catch sight of 'em or a capsized boat — 
with the wind rising all the time, and great big 
waves rolling in shore — I came back, and hired a 
wagon to drive out here and let you know. I've 
no hopes of 'em, for it was as much as I could do 
to manage the boat I was in. They must have 
gone out in the bay and got upset, though they 
told me they was only going for an hour’s sail up 
and down the river, or I wouldn't have let 'em have 
the boat. Now they've gone and lost it for me, 
and drowned themselves, and their relations will 
be crying over 'em as if there were no more boys 
left. I wish there weren’t, for there’s no satisfac- 
tion in having anything to do with 'em, and the 
smaller they are the worse they be, drat ’em. But 
I'm sorry for your boy's folks, because they’ll feel 
badly, I know, and he was as handsome as any 
youngster I ever set eyes on.” 

These tidings were communicated to Mrs. Liv- 
ingston a few minutes afterwards on her return from 
a drive in search of him, and of course only inten- 
sified her anxiety and grief. 

“Oh! my dear boy, my dear boy!” she ex- 
claimed, piteously. “Can he really be drowned ? 
Great heavens, no ! Oh ! no, it cannot be ! God 
would not take him away from me so ! Oh ! Aleck ! 
Aleck ! my darling Aleck ! Come back, come 


12 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE, 


back ! ” and meanwhile she wrung her hands and 
wept profusely. 

A little later, and just before dusk, her husband 
arrived from the city, after a drive from the Jersey 
side of the North River, and she met him at the 
door and fell sobbing into his arms. “Aleck’s 
drowned ! Aleck’s drowned ! ” Was all she could 
say, and astounded by the intelligence, and over- 
come by those silent orators, a woman’s tears, he 
exclaimed, “Good heavens, Florence! Is that 
so ? ” while his eyes grew moist with emotion, for he 
loved that boy as dearly as ever father loved a son. 
He almost idolized his children. He was a man, 
however, who tried to preserve unruffled serenity 
under all circumstances, and it is a useful precci)t 
which tells us that if we wish to preserve ourselves 
in health and safety we must avoid all serious cares, 
and never give way to vehement passion, so he 
controlled any further exhibition of feeling by a 
strong effort. 

Days and weeks passed by, and the faint hopes 
which he entertained on first hearing the boatman’s 
story, that, as the boat had not been found, the 
missing boy might still be among the living, and 
be yet restored to his sorrowing parents, were 
reluctantly abandoned. A pall of mourning, a 
settled gloom hung over the house that had beYoro 
been the happiest and most joyous of homes, and 
but that his wife had a child left to console her he 
feared that her mind would have given way under 
the dreadful strain to which it was subjected. 

All search for the boat, or tidings of it, proved 
in vain, although five hundred dollars reward was 
offered for information of it, and the boatman’s 
opinion was that it had drifted out to sea, bottom 
up. 

Months more came and went, but the anguish at 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 13 

the mother's heart remained to sadden her exist- 
ence, and her constant yearning was for her lost 
boy’s return. 

“ Hope deferred maketh the heart sick indeed, 
Madeline,” she said to her daughter, “and if it 
were not for you, my dear, mine would break ! ” 


CHAPTER HI. 

While not quite Chesterfieldian in the polish of 
his manners, Peter Livingston was always polite 
in the sense of politeness being the art of giving to 
every one in an easy and unconstrained manner 
those particular marks of attention which are his 
due, and which therefore he has a right to expect 
as a member of society ; yet with all his good 
qualities he was not without 'detractors, but for a 
man to be without an enemy would imply his 
possession of nothing for which he could be envied. 

It was a matter of course that Mr. Livingston’s 
family moved in and represented the best and 
most cultivated society of New York, and his man- 
sion in Washington Square enjoyed a local renown 
for the historical and art collections of its owner, 
and the elegant and hospitable manner in which 
he and his wife entertained. 

Those were days when private art galleries in 
the United States were few and small and connois- 
seurs were fewer still, and when in a literary sense 
at least, American society was necessarily less 
advanced than it is now, in common with the 
world at large, for, recent as the time is, steam 
navigation and the railway system were then in 
their infancy, and science and the arts have since 


H 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


wrought a revolution by the rapidity of their 
progress. 

He had been a European traveler and improved 
his taste by association with the dilettantioi London, 
Paris, Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg, and so 
became a virtuoso of no mean order. A visit to the 
old world, which is now no more of a novelty for 
Arnericans than a trip up or down the Hudson 
River used to be, was then sufficiently rare to make 
the untraveled friends of returned voyagers at 
least solicitous to learn their impressions of the 
countries they had passed through, and to cause 
them to be regarded as authorities whenever a dis- 
puted question arose in relation to the sights they 
had seen, whether they really knew or remembered 
anything about the subject or not ; and it is safe to 
say that most of them did not, for how many there 
are who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and see 
nothing ! 

But a load of grief now oppressed the once buoy- 
ant spirits of Peter Livingston, and he cared no 
more for politics or the governorship of New 
Jersey, while his wife even more deplored the loss 
of their only son. “We shall never see the poor 
dear boy again, Peter,” she said, with tears in her 
eyes, “ I feel that he is gone forever in this world, 
but I hope we shall meet him again in heaven.” 


-4 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


15 


CHAPTER IV. 

“He, he, he, he, he ! — Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ! — Ho, 
ho, ho, ho, ho ! ” roars that comical bird the laugh- 
ing- jackass in the Australian bush, and, from my 
eyrie, I feel inclined to laugh with him on general 
principles, for laugh and the world laughs with you, 
and cry and you are left alone. Bdt I have a 
somewhat serious story to till, and therefore it 
becomes me to appear as solemn as the laughing 
jackass, who invariably looks as sober as a judge 
notwithstanding his rollicking strain. I have often 
seen and heard him, and the contrast between the 
owl-like gravity of his appearance and the mirth- 
fulness of his utterance, as he eyed me from his 
perch in a gum tree, was always amusing. 

Considering that the world is wide and a novelist 
has all the world before him, from which to pick 
and choose his characters and scenes, there may 
seem to be nothing very felicitous in my selection 
of a quiet Massachusetts village *as a scene of 
action, and poor country folks as dramatis personcB ; 
but it is sometimes refreshing to turn from the 
beaten paths of fashionable and city life to contem- 
plate rural life among the lowly. Fifth Avenue, 
Newport, Saratoga, Bar Harbor and Lenox are un- 
doubtedly good social observatories from which to 
study mankind of the fashionable type ; but fashion's 
votaries are no more interesting and no more en- 
dowed with nobility of nature, than the great army 
of the unfashionable. The proper study of man- 
kind is man in all his aspects, and man in every 
walk of life i» often a very curious animal, while 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


woman is everywhere a perpetual riddle, an ever- 
changing chameleon. 

On the principle that it is well to begin at the be- 
ginning, I will introduce my New England scenes 
with the birth of my hero, although I could just as 
easily introduce mystery by introducing him at the 
end of his career, and tracing him back through a 
perplexing labyrinth of dark passages and changing 
scenes. Like a good Christian,! prefer the straight 
and narrow path. 

“So it’s a boy — eh? Thank the Lord! ” said a 
big horny-handed man — a sturdy fellow sprung from 
an oak and not from a willow — as he looked upon a 
very pink baby which was presented to him as his 
first-born, late one afternoon in September in the 
year 1827, when he came home from his work ; and 
taking it up gently, he held it before his eyes and 
surveyed it with paternal pride. 

To talk to a baby was something new to him, 
but he instinctively took that way of expressing his 
feelings and making its better acquaintance ; and 
although the mother was in the same apartment, 
his attention for the moment was engrossed by the 
newcomer. 

“Welcome, little stranger ! ” he began. “ Does 
he know his daddy ? I’ll bet he doesn’t. What 
does he shake his head at me for ? Is it too heavy 
for his little neck ? What a flat little nose he’s got ; 
what soft, silky hair; what tiny fat fists, full of 
dimples.” Then he paused and looked still more 
intently at the living object he held as if lost in ad- 
miration. “What, you want to fight me — eh.?'" And 
now you be going to cry, be you ? I guess you 
want to go to your mammy, — do you? You 
wouldn’t give shucks for me, I know : it’s your 
mammy you want ; not a cent you’d give for any- 
body else ? Well, here, go to her, go 1 ” and he 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


17 

placed the child gently on the bed beside its mother. 

“Well, old woman, how be you?” he asked, ad- 
dressing the latter in his rough but kindly way ; 
“ I hope you’ll soon be about as well as ever, and 
that this young fellow, with the help of God, ’ll 
live to be a comfort and a blessing to us both. 
Don’t answer me, Hepzy, if you ain’t strong enough. 
I’ll do what’s wanted about the house, and keep 
things straight, and Mrs. Bates here ’ll do the rest, 
won’t you, mam ? ” the person alluded to being an 
elderly widow, who was not only a neighbor but 
a doctress. 

The wife answered him in a faint voice, and 
folded her infant to her breast. 

“It’s a kind of nat’ral that these things should 
come along once in a while just this way,” he 
observed reflectively, turning to Mrs. Bates, as if for 
corroboration of the truth of his remark, “isn’t it ? ” 

“I guess you’re about right, Zachary. Now that 
you’re a father I suppose you hardly know what to 
make of it, but you’ll get used to it. This has been 
the way with us all, and the way we come into the 
world is nearer the way we go out of it than any- 
thing else in natur’.” 

This conversation took place in the small frame 
house — with its great square brick chimney — in 
which Zachary Fenwick and his wife had lived 
since their marriage about two years previously. 
He was a carpenter by trade, and he had built it 
himself, with another man to help him, on a half 
acre lot of land which he had bought and paid for out 
of his savings. The house consisted of two stories 
and four rooms — a kitchen and sitting-room on 
the ground floor, and two bedrooms up a short, 
narrow flight of stairs, and in the rear, covering the 
remainder of the lot, was a small vegetable garden 
much in need of hoeing. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


i8 

It was in the village of Sandlake in eastern Mas- 
sachusetts, at the head of Cape Cod, and less than 
three miles from the town of Shoreham, a port of 
entry on Buzzard’s Bay, where from time to time 
a sloop, a schooner or a brig was built, but whose 
commerce was so small that the position of col- 
lector of customs there was almost a sinecure, and 
for a month or two every winter the harbor was 
closed by barriers of ice. A quiet, slow-going 
town was Shoreham, with a sandy main street, a 
muddy back street, and two or three sandy cross 
streets, and sandy roads stretching beyond and a 
couple of nail factories, and a short line of wharves 
where the few coasting vessels belonging to the 
place lay to discharge and take in their cargoes. 
There was a sprinkling of small farms hemmed in 
by fences and rude stone walls in all directions 
beyond the main street, and of rather quaint old 
houses among the more modern ones, and of old 
barns, wood-piles, and haystacks, and of brindled 
cows at pasture — some with bells round their necks 
— that looked up wisely with their large and elo- 
quent eyes, at passers-by — who were few and far 
between — as if to see whether milking time had 
come. 

The spiritual wants of Shoreham were supplied 
by a small Presbyterian church — which Protest- 
ants who were not Methodists attended regularly 
or irregularly as the case might be — a Methodist 
meeting-house — the preacher in which was also 
the preacher in the one at Sandlake — and a Ro- 
man Catholic chapel, the latter attended only by 
the Irish-born part of the population, all three being 
situated at safe distances from each other on the 
sandy back street referred to. 

A road through the woods connected Shoreham 
with Sandlake, and in these solitary sylvan wastes 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


19 

sombre pines alternated with oaks, not tall and 
majestic trees, but such dwarfish specimens as 
might be expected to spring from such a sandy, 
unprolific soil, and whose fate — if disturbed at all 
— was to be felled and chopped at long intervals 
in the course of ages, for firewood — an inglorious 
destiny compared with that of being turned into 
ships to sail the sea, or employed in the building 
of the dwellings of men. Tangled underbrush 
grew here and there in patches among the trees — 
huckleberry and blackberry bushes showing them- 
selves at times in the midst of scrub oaks — and 
russet pine needles strewed the ground. 

Sandlake owed its name to a small lake, or large 
pond, in its vicinity, which, however, was merely 
one of a hundred ponds, small and large, within 
a circuit of ten miles. Indeed, Sandlake was 
covered with an eruption of ponds, all fish-bear- 
ing, and beautifully clear, fed by gushing springs, 
and picturesque enough to please the eye of an 
artist. It was just the -spot in which anglers would 
have taken delight, for trout were abundant, espe- 
cially in the early summer and fall, in the running 
brooks, and the river, while white and red perch 
and pickerel were in the river and the ponds, and, 
at a later period, black bass were added to these 
by transportation — otherwise “stocking" — from 
Saratoga Lake through the public spirit of an ardent 
lover of the gentle art residing in the neighborhood. 

The angler, not satisfied with the fishing in these 
inland waters, could repair to the bay two or three 
miles away, and there — above the oyster-beds by 
its clam-strewn shores — reap a harvest of bluefish, 
tautog, squiteeg and scup from the briny deep, 
while if he drove his boat-wagon to the other side 
of the cape — a distance of about ten miles — he 
could, if he chose, launch out, and, not far from 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


ZO 

where the lobster pots were set, catch codfish and 
large haddock. But the inhabitants were so averse 
to the trouble of catching them, that whoever 
wanted fish in this region, where it was so abun- 
dant, had to fish for himself. 

The prosperity of Sandlake was, like that of 
Shoreham, mainly dependent on its manufacturing 
industry, which was represented by a single nail 
factory and rolling mill, for the soil was so sandy 
and poor as to be incapable of supporting the 
scanty population by farming. The village was 
laid out in streets, but it consisted almost entirely 
of workmen’s cottages, with here and there the 
more commodious and pretentious dwelling of a 
retired sea captain, who had finally, after a roving 
career, settled down on his native heath. 

It is a peculiarity of seafaring men from Cape 
Cod to do this, and it is a touching tribute to their 
birthplace. Hyannis, at one point of the cape, is 
a town of retired sea-captains, and all the way 
down from Shoreham to Provincetown their neat 
and often handsome domiciles are numerous. So 
fittingly rest from their labors these thrifty old 
whalers — these bygone toilers of the sea. 

Here in this part of eastern Massachusetts in- 
tellectual culture was and still is greatly neglected 
by all but a few of the people, some of whom 
have a quiet, semi-vacant, staring look, as if their 
mental faculties were lying partially dormant, and 
they needed something to rouse them to action. 
There is, of course, a corresponding lack among 
them of that refined society and ambition to im- 
prove themselves and their lot which are such 
prominent characteristics of the more progres- 
sive people of the western part of the same State, 
whose bright intelligence and almost metropolitan 
habitudes are conspicuous. A sort of Boston 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


21 


literary atmosphere pervades the pleasant towns of 
the Housatonic Valley and its neighborhood — 
Pittsfield and Lenox, Sheffield and Great Barring- 
ton in particular — while those nearer, but, beyond 
a certain distance, to the eastward of “the Hub,” 
are distinguished by its absence, and sesthetics 
are almost entirely lost sight of in the hum-drum 
routine of practical every-day life, and the further 
down Cape Cod we go the more strongly marked 
is the contrast between the two sections of the old 
Commonwealth. 

Newspapers are almost as scarce as books among 
the great majority of the population of the Cape, 
very few subscribing for even the nearest local — 
generally far off — or a Boston weekly, much less a 
daily, or a New York journal, and the news of the 
world never reaches them unless it is important 
enough to be talked about by those who do read a 
paper, in which case they glean all their knowl- 
edge of it from casual remarks, or the talk at 
village stores. They are contented not to “get 
on,” but to live all their lives in the same house, 
following the occupations of their fathers on the 
same farm, or in the same place, or cultivating the 
same cranberry bog, excepting those who have a 
taste for the sea and who are enterprising enough 
to go cod or mackerel fishing from Provincetown, 
Yarmouth, Hyannis, or even Gloucester, which 
last, although not on Cape Cod, is a port from 
which the cod fishery is largely conducted. But 
in these days of rapid wear and tear in great cities 
it is soothing and perhaps refreshing to find people 
who enjoy vegetating, who are satisfied to lead 
quiet, unostentatious lives on small earnings and 
frugal fare, with few or no excitements or yearn- 
ings after pomps, vanities and wealth, and as little 
curiosity to know the fashions as the news. The 


22 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

houses and the towns, and the sandy roads, and 
the whole country, but for the railway, seem to 
look as they might have done a hundred years 
ago, and some of the inhabitants seem, too, to be 
wearing the same old clothes, for indifference to 
new ones and to the picturesque in costume are 
in keeping with their homely but kindly ways, 
and their well-tanned faces, dark as leather and 
prunella. As for money, they have so little of it 
that they are very properly careful of what they 
get, and a five-cent piece is equal in the eyes of 
most of them to a dollar as viewed by a New 
Yorker, and they know the virtue of Yankee 
thrift. 

One peculiarity of the boys of the region is that 
when spoken to in the open air, they immediately 
straighten themselves up like bantam cocks about 
to sound the clarion note, and make answer almost 
as loudly and with as much effort as the latter crow. 
“Yes, mam ! ” or “yes, sir ! or the opposite, as 
the case may be, they will say with trip-hammer 
emphasis, as if accustomed to speak to persons 
at long distances, and then come to a full stop as 
if words were marketable commodities like clams 
or cranberries, and only to be sold at a fair price. 

Zachary was generally employed about the 
Sandlake works at his trade, but he was always 
ready to accept odd jobs elsewhere, and if he failed 
at any time to get work enough to keep the pot 
boiling in his own village, he sought and usually 
found it in neighboring towns ; nor was he above 
turning his hand to labor of any kind if there was 
no carpentering to be done. This, however, but 
seldom occurred. 

Acute, thrifty Yankee was Zachary Fenwick, and 
one moreover, poor though he was, with a strongly 
pronounced feeling of independence, with which, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


n 

possibly, the fact of his having been born on the 
4th of July may have had something to do. His 
native place was the neighboring town of Sand- 
wich, whose name is appropriate enough because 
of the sand which is there. Cape Cod being itself 
little more than a gigantic sandbank sprinkled 
with pine trees, small towns, and straggling vil- 
lages, and he was at this time about thirty years of 
age. 

He was a tall, lean, large-boned man with gray 
eyes and reddish brown hair, and his hands and 
face were tanned, by exposure, to a yellowish 
brown. He belonged to the Methodist denomina- 
tion, and had a powerful strident voice which was 
heard over all others every Sunday morning in the 
village meeting-house. He was, also, fond of ex- 
horting his brethren, and had a habit of exclaiming 
“Amen!’' “Glory to God!” and “Come to 
Jesus ! ” in the midst of a sermon or prayer, when 
the spirit moved him, and one Sabbath after the 
usual morning service he was publicly baptized by 
the minister, who walked into an adjacent pond 
with him until both — dressed in their ordinary 
clothes — were nearly up to their shoulders in the 
water, an example which led several others to do 
likewise, singing hymns loudly the while in con- 
cert with many of the congregation of spectators 
on the shore, where only irreverent small boys were 
seen to laugh, although but for the earnest devotion 
of the actors in the scene the spectacle would 
have been decidedly provocative of mirth. 

Zachary was also keen in controversy, and the 
Romish Church was sometimes the object upon 
which he opened his batteries, in theological argu- 
ment, when in the presence of Roman Catholics. 

He had one of the latter — an Irishman — among 
his neighbors, with whom he made several at- 


24 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


tempts to get up an argument on the subject of 
Catholicism versus Protestantism, but without suc- 
cess. At length he met him at the village store, 
and, renewing his effort, remarked : “Thank God, 
Murphy, / don’t believe in purgatory ! ” 

Then aptly and good-humoredly replied the 
other : “If you don’t like purgatory, go to hell ! ” 
whereupon there was a general laugh from the 
on-looking listeners. 

“I’ll leave you to do that!” he rejoined, and 
went his way homeward, remarking to himself as 
he did so, “That fellow slings words as David did 
stones. I guess he thinks he hit the bull’s eye, 
first shot. But, pshaw ! ” 

It was about a year after the advent of the baby 
when Zachary said to his wife one September day 
— “I’m going gunning to-morrow, Hepzy, in Ply- 
mouth woods with Josh Besse,” and at dawn on 
the following morning the latter — a puddler in the 
works, about twenty-five years old — called for 
him, and the two men set out on a deer-hunting 
expedition, taking with them their fowling-pieces 
and a couple of staghounds belonging to Joshua. 

It was a common thing for Zachary to go out 
shooting, either alone or in company with one or 
two other sportsmen, and he generally brought 
home ducks, quail, or partridges, but sometimes 
he would produce a rabbit or two from his game- 
bag, or have a red or gray fox slung across his 
shoulder, and he had been known to return with 

woodchucks and skunks, the flesh of which last 

strange enough — he considered something of a 
delicacy for the table, and ate thereof, like some 
of his neighbors. Every man to his taste — chacun 
a son goht What would the Soyers, the Franca- 
tellis, and the Brillat Savarins, or, indeed, any 
chef oi a refined cuisine say to this honne bouche 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


25 


of village epicures ? It would be almost enough 
to make any but a Paris gourmand or a Chinese 
mandarin faint. 

In justice to Zachary’s wife, however, it is 
proper to state that she disliked the taste as 
much as the smell of a skunk, and, with regard to 
the latter, not even he disagreed with her. 

Joshua was an old admirer of Hephzibah’s, and 
he had been going with her — to use the Cape 
Cod. equivalent for courting or paying attentions 
— for some months prior to his friend Zachary 
doing the same thing, although he had not popped 
the question, but they had quarrelled seriously, as 
lovers sometimes will, and, before the breach had 
been healed and they had made up again, the man 
whose wife she became had won her away from him. 
He felt bitter at heart towards both of them for 
this, but, in his pride, uttered no reproaches, and 
showed no sign of his disappointment, and when 
Hephzibah at length told him she was going to be 
married to Zachary he said : “All right, Hepzy ; 
I hope you’ll be happy,” and they appeared to be 
good friends still. 

On the evening of the day of the deer-hunt 
Hephzibah, while anxiously expecting her husband 
home, for he was later in returning than she had 
supposed he would he, was standing at the door 
of her cottage, with her child in her arms, when 
she saw two men in an open farm wagon approach, 
and two hounds following it like mourners. She 
watched it till it stopped at the little roadside gate 
a few yards in front of her, and she then saw at a 
glance, although it was nearly dusk, that one of 
the men was Joshua Besse, and the other was not 
her husband. Another glance showed her that the 
latter was one Ben Sherman who owned a team, and 
was generally employed in chopping and sawing 
firewood. 


i 


26 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

The manner of Joshua Besse’s return, as well as 
the circumstance of her husband not being with 
him, naturally aroused her apprehensions and filled 
her with a presentiment of evil at once, and the 
color left her cheeks as she cried out excitedly, 
“Where’s Zach, Josh? where is he ? ” 

There was no response, which confirmed her 
worst suspicions ; but the man she had called to 
jumped off the cart, and, opening the gate, walked 
slowly towards her with his head down. 

“ Tell me. Josh, what has happened. Where is 
he? ” and she burst into tears without awaiting his 
reply. 


CHAPTER V. 

“ It’s plaguey bad news I have for you, Hepzy,” 
said Joshua Besse, in reply to her inquiry after her 
husband, “for I have him here in the wagon,” 
and he gave way to tears himself, and his breast 
heaved. 

“Oh! my God, is he killed? What has hap- 
pened ? Let me see him I — let me see him I Heaven 
save me 1 ” and her eyes flashed, and her face 
grew deathly pale as she rushed down the narrow 
path to the gateway, and out into the road to 
search the cart without pausing to hear him. 

He followed her. 

“Look you here,” said he, “don’t take on so. 
Wait till I tell you how it happened. It was just 
as pure an accident as ever was, and I feel awful 
bad about it. We had just started a deer, and ” 

“Oh! my God! my God! He’s dead! he’s 
dead ! ” She screamed as she pulled away an 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


27 


empty sack that had concealed the features of her 
husband’s corpse, and, suddenly losing her strength, 
her child rolled out of her arms on to its father’s 
body, while, but for Joshua Besse, she would have 
fallen to the ground. 

Neighbors saw and heard the commotion, and 
rushed forward to ascertain the cause. 

“He’s dead! he’s dead!” cried the bereaved 
woman hysterically clutching at one of his hands. 
“Poor Zach ! Poor Zach ! What killed him.?” 
and her voice died away into a hoarse whisper, 
and she swooned, while her child, still in the cart, 
began to cry aloud. She had loved her husband 
dearly, and now felt almost willing to join him in 
death. 

Joshua, putting his arm round her waist, carried 
her into the kitchen of the house, while a woman 
among the neighbors took up the child and car- 
ried it after the mother, meanwhile trying to 
console it, but, like Rachel weeping for her 
children, it would not be comforted. 

Hephzibah soon recovered consciousness, and 
her first words were — “Where is he.? Oh! my 
poor dead husband ! Bring him in. I want to 
see him. The Lord help me ! ” 

The corpse had already been carried into the 
house, and placed in the adjoining sitting-room, 
commonly called the parlor, where it was being 
laid out by the two men who brought it home. 

“ Josh,” said she, “ tell me all about it. I know 
the worst, and God will give me strength to bear 
it now.” 

“ Well, it’s mighty hard to have to tell you, as I 
be the cause of it, but it happened this way. The 
hounds were on a full run after a deer that we’d 
started up by White Island pond. ‘ They’ve 
turned him. Here he comes ! ’ says Zach, and goes 


28 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


off from me toward an opening- in the woods 
where I couldn't see him. ‘ Go round to the other 
side,' he shouted, and I went to a kind of opening 
in the woods there. I hadn’t been there more 
than a second or two when I heard the dogs a- 
coming quite close, and all of a sudden something 
seemed to plunge into some bushes not twenty- 
yards ahead of me. I felt sure as it was the deer, 
never thinking Zach would cross over there from 
where I left him, and I fired straight at it on the 
instant The charge had hardly left the barrel 
when — thunder ! — I saw my mistake, but it was 
too late. I heard a yell of pain, and running up 
to him, I found poor Zach, all of a heap, and just 
closing his eyes. 

It was an accident, Zach — forgive me ! ’ says I. 

“ ‘ I know it. Josh,’ he gasped out, ‘ I forgive you. 
Take me home to Hepzy. I oughtn’t to have crossed 
over*; and he never spoke another word, but fell over 
and died. I don’t think as he thought he was going 
to die so soon, and I didn’t know at first where he 
was shot, but as he fell back like, I saw the blood 
trickling from a wound in his breast, and on over- 
hauling him I found there was a bullet hole 
right over his heart. I felt badly, I can tell you 
— as badly as a man ever felt, for, innocent as I 
was, I had taken his life. I felt as if I’d rather 
I’d been killed myself than have killed him, but I 
saw there was no help for it ; so, after kneeling 
down by his side, and praying to God to forgive 
me for what I’d done, I tied his gun and my own 
together and slung ’em at my back, and lifted him 
across my shoulder and carried him towards the 
Sandlake road about three miles off. It was a 
mighty heavy load I had to carry, and I had to 
stop and rest pretty often on the way, but I thought 
I might meet a wagon as would give me a lift when 


.A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


29 

I got to the road, but I didn’t see a soul, till I’d 
been and walked about nine mile, and I was 
nearly ready to drop. Then I met Ben Sherman, 
with his empty wagon, on the way to get a load 
of wood, and I put poor Zach’s body on it, and got 
him to turn around, and go back to Sandlake, and 
that’s how we came to bring it home together 
so. I never saw a man more thunderstruck than 
Ben was when he saw what I was carrying and 
said, ‘ Who be it? ’ and I felt a great weight off of 
my mind when I told him what had happened, 
but I can never forgive myself for shooting him, 
accident though it was. We had alius been the 
best of friends, and it cuts me to the heart to 
think of what I've been and done. I’m ashamed 
to ask you to forgive me because I know I’ve 
taken from you what can’t be got back, but I think 
the Lord has forgiven me, because He knowed I 
didn’t mean to do it. I be willing to stand my 
trial for taking his life, and whatever the Law says 
I’ll abide by, but I know if I was to be hung for it 
I couldn’t feel any worse than I do. It isn't for 
myself I be caring, but for him that's gone, and 
the wife and child he’s left behind,” and a tear 
trickled down the strong man’s face, as the glimmer 
of the candle light played upon his bronzed features, 
and lighted up his dark brown jiair and full beard, 
and revealed a depth of unutterable regret in his 
keen black eyes. 

The neighbors looked at him, and, remembering 
that he had been “sparking” Hepzy before she 
became engaged to marry Zachary, the question 
naturally suggested itself to them whether or not 
jealousy had prompted a murder, and Joshua’s 
apparent grief was due to a sense of guilt he dared 
not to acknowledge ; but the more they looked at 
him the more doubts as to his innocence were dis- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


30 

missed from their minds, although one of them 
was heard to say to another, It was the first time 
they went on a shooting together since Zach got 
married, wasn't it ? to which the other replied, 
“Yes, I guess so, I never heard on ’em a-going 
afore.” 

“ I be thankful,” continued Joshua, “ Tve neither 
wife nor children, and that my good old mother’s 
been saved hearing of this, for if she wasn’t in her 
grave it would ha’ worried her ’most to death.” 

Meanwhile Hephzibah, who had passed so sud- 
denly from wifehood to widowhood, sat sobbing, 
and moaning, and rocking her body from side to 
side on a chair, her face buried in her hands, and 
her elbows resting on her knees. She was inconsol- 
able. Her loss was irreparable, and only once after 
Joshua Besse concluded his statement she looked 
up and spoke, and her words were — “You’ve 
killed my husband ! I forgive you if God forgives 
you, but I can’t forget, and I never want to see 
you again. You feel sorry for what you’ve done I 
know, but it’s too late. Go away — go away ! Leave 
me to my grief; I leave you to your remorse ! ” and 
half in sorrow, half in anger, with something like a 
scowl on his face, he left the house without another 
word, and surrendered himself to the village con- 
stable. On the following day, however, an inquest 
was held on the body, and he was exonerated 
from all blame by the coroner’s jury. Public 
opinion, too, acquitted him on the ground that the 
shooting of his friend was accidental, but a few 
there were who doubted the truth of his story, and 
in the eyes of the widow even his blunder, if such 
it was, was a crime, and who could say it was not 
a murder? for there were no witnesses to affirm or 
deny. 

Hephzibah hated the sight of him, and refused to 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDEATCE. 


31 


speak to or even recognize him, and this had doubt- 
less a good deal to do with his determination a 
few months after his acquittal to leave the place, 
and seek work elsewhere. He left, telling no one 
where he was going, and after that Sandlake knew 
him no more, but a rumor came a few weeks after 
his departure from Middleboro — his native town — 
that he was in Providence, Rhode Island, and had 
become a very devout member of the Methodist 
Church, at which he had been previously inclined 
to scoff. 

Hephzibah had never been physically strong, for 
although tall she was slender and fragile-looking 
in figure, and a martyr to dyspepsia. Although 
she was only twenty-seven at the time of her hus- 
band's death, her complexion was already faded, 
and she had none of the freshness and plumpness 
of youth and health. She was thin to scragginess, 
and flat where she should have been full and 
rounded — the very opposite of a Juno — but her 
infant was what is called a bouncing boy — fat, 
strong, and apparently healthy — a contrast that is 
often presented between mother and child, espe- 
cially in New England. 

A national if not inherited fondness for pie at 
breakfast, dinner, and supper may have been the 
principal source of her ill-health, but this never 
suggested itself to her mind. She went on making 
and eating pumpkin and apple pies, with the thick- 
est and most indigestible of pastry, as if they were 
really the staff of life, and among the rural popula- 
tion of New England they are unhappily too often 
its substitute. She even occasionally tempted her 
baby to taste the leaden mass, but with an in- 
stinctive preference for less sophisticated food it 
invariably eschewed the proffered banquet, from 
which she might have taken warning for herself, 


A MAJiVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


32 

but pie-eating seemed to be a part of the religion 
of her daily life. It was an altar upon which she 
unconsciously immolated herself. Pie was to her 
the most welcome of sustenance. It comforted 
her to eat it, just as it comforts most women to 
drink a cup of tea, and when she couldn’t eat pie 
she thought she was in a bad way indeed. 

Nor was it only in respect to pie that she sinned 
against her own health. Whenever she cooked 
animal food, whether fish, flesh or fowl, she fried 
it, and fried it, too, with plenty of fa^ because she 
thought it savory, and she treated eggs, potatoes, 
and whatever else was capable of being fried in 
the same way. She had never seen or even heard 
of a gridiron. When she used butter it was gen- 
erally on hot cakes, or in the form of buttered 
toast. No wonder that she was dyspeptic, but she 
never blamed pie, or the frying-pan, or hot butter 
for making her so. 

The windows of the house, as usual in country 
places, only opened at the bottom, and she never 
opened them when she could help it because she 
was afraid of taking cold, and she made it a rule 
to keep the blinds shut as much as possible in 
summer to keep the sun and the flies out. She 
cared nothing about fresh air. 

Her great object was to keep the rooms cool 
and dark, and she knew that flies shunned the 
darkness. When she went out, which was not 
very often, she wore a big poke bonnet and avoided 
walking in the sun as much as she could, thinking 
it would work injury to her complexion, ignorant 
that the sun’s rays are purifying and invigorating, 
and should be courted instead of guarded against. 

She was considerably above the medium height, 
with hazel eyes and dark brown hair, broken and 
discolored teeth, a slight waddle in her walk, and 


A MAR VEL LOUS COINCIDENCE, 


33 


a nasal sing-song intonation in her speech, and 
she was never voluble except when earnestly en- 
gaged in conversation upon some subject in which 
she was deeply interested. Her complexion had 
once been pink and white, but the white part had 
gradually changed to .the color of a bamboo walk- 
ing cane, and the red to a light bay, a shade or 
. two paler than an American robin’s breast. She 
had small feet and hands, and a long aquiline nose 
a little pinched at the end, and a mouth a little too 
suggestive of the opening in a letter box to be 
considered strictly handsome. For the rest she 
had small ears, a small chin, and a rather unfor- 
giving although otherwise amiable disposition ; but 
she had loved her husband dearly, and mourned 
him sadly now that he had been taken from her, 
and loved his child the more because it was his as 
well as her own. 

She seemed oppressed by a new weight of sor- 
row from the day of his death, and as time passed 
she became more and more ailing and feeble. 
She sometimes went to the village cemetery where 
he had been buried, and laid flowers on his grave, 
and wept bitterly over her own desolation and his 
untimely end, and then returned to her home to 
think how destitute as well as desolate she really 
was. 

‘ ‘ She pined in thought. 

And with a green and yellow melancholy, 

She sat like patience on a monument, 

Smilmg at grief.” 

At length her own scanty resources— including 
the proceeds of the house she lived in, which her 
necessities forced her to sell — and the charity of 
her neighbors, became exhausted, and at the same 
time her health was so far broken down that she 
3 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


found it a heavy task to take care of herself and 
child, much less to do anything to earn a support. 
Nothing remained for her to look forward to but 
the poorhouse and death, for she was an orphan, 
and without any near relatives, or any distant ones 
who were able, or cared to, keep her. 

My poor, dear, darling child,'’ she said, press- 
ing her boy to her breast as — on the eve of becom- 
ing a pauper — she looked her sorrowful fate full 
in the face with a shudder and a sigh, “we shall 
have to go to the poorhouse. How will my sweet 
pet like that ? How will he like his poor, sick 
mother to take him there — eh, my child .J* It’s very 
hard on her to have to be one of the town paupers, 
isn’t it But the Lord will give her strength to 
bear it, and His will be done. What can’t be cured 
must be endured. Ah ! my darling, since your 
poor father was killed by that wicked man Joshua 
Besse she’s known what it is to want and suffer ; 
she’s felt how bitter it is to have nothing to keep 
body and soul together but what was given to her 
in charity. Ah ! my dear little pet, the world’s so 
very cruel, so very heartless, and it’s so hard to 
get a living, it make- me sad, and that’s why you 
see your poor mother crying so often. If it wasn’t 
for hope my heart would break. If your poor 
father had lived I should have been spared all this ; 
yes, my own, I guess I should, but it can’t be 
helped. What can a poor sick woman do all alone 
in the world.? We shouldn’t have had to go to the 
poorhouse then. Job ; no, we shouldn’t. Bless 
his little heart,” and she fondled her precious off- 
spring. 

“Mother, wha’s ’he poo’house?” asked the 
child. 

“Where is the poorhouse, my dear? Not very 
far from here — about five miles. You’ll see it when 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 35 

we go there to-morrow. But it’ll be a sad journey 
for me,” and she kissed her darling and shed a 
tear. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Of the poorhouse, Hephzibah felt a secret dread, 
for Cyrus Muggles its keeper, the overseer of the 
paupers— or “Old Apple Bite,” as he was some- 
times called behind his back, from the supposed 
resemblance of his head and face to an apple that 
has been bitten and thrown away — was not the man 
to make the tenement over which he presided a bed 
of roses for its inmates, and his wife was a dis- 
agreeable old crone to come in contact with. He 
would probably have been a pauper himself had 
he not been appointed to fill this position by the 
selectmen of the town, about three years before, 
and at a time when he was becoming too old and 
infirm to work regularly at his trade, which was that 
of a stone mason. 

He was now about seveniy-five years of age, and 
a rather strange-looking figure. He was nearly six 
feet in height, disproportionately narrow, and very 
thin, and he stooped so much that when he walked 
he seemed to be constantly contemplating his feet, 
which were so large as to have been dubbed 
“ beetle crushers ” by a facetious observer, and with 
a scythe across his shoulder in mowing time — for 
he still could mow a little — 'he looked like a carica- 
ture of Old Father Time. His skin was tanned to 
a dark, dirty brown, and deeply wrinkled, and his 
gray eyes under his low forehead, and short iron- 
gray hair, looked as dull and as small for his size 
as those of an elephant. So hard and knobby was 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


36 

his face that it suggested hardly anything less solid 
and tough than a knot on a well seasoned hickory 
log — a face as stern as Andrew Jackson’s. as it has 
been handed down to us in the colored lithographs 
which in the days that are no more were looked 
upon as the choicest products of art by the western 
frontiersmen whose cabin walls they adorned — a 
face full of inflexible lines, dogged determination, 
uncompromising self-will and brute courage, but 
rather flat withal, as might be inferred from his 
sobriquet, and without that spark of superior intelli- 
gence, and indomitable energy which distinguished 
“Old Hickory.” His long, sinewy arms, when bare, 
and hanging straight down at his side, as they often 
did, were almost skeletonian in their dryness and 
angularity, the elbow joints being as sharp and 
formidable as sledge-hammers or chisels, and he 
was as rough as the stone he had been accustomed 
to hew in his manner, having apparently no con- 
ception of the amenities of modern civilized life, 
and being as utterly illiterate as it was possible for 
a man to be who could read print slowly and write 
his own name with difflculty. He had worked 
hard at his trade all his life with no ambition to in- 
form or cultivate himself in anyway, and openly 
despised what he called book learning, while he 
had rarely seen, and never really read a newspaper. 

The little education he had received when a child 
at the public school in his native village was more 
than sufficient to satisfy him, and he took no inter- 
est in the affairs of the world at large, nor cared to 
know what was going on in it. Yet he possibly 
felt some little concern as to his soul’s welfare, for 
at irregular intervals he accompanied his wife to 
the Methodist meeting-house at Shoreham, which 
was a good deal for him to do, steeped in apathy 
and contented ignorance as he was. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


37 


He seldom spoke except when spoken to, and, 
while often rude of speech, his words were few, 
and he was never known to laugh or even smile. 
He had a cold, severe, unsympathetic expression of 
countenance such as paupers are too apt to en- 
counter ail the world over, and in this respect he 
seemed to have been made for an overseer of the 
poor. 

His wife was about his own age and nearly as 
thin and shrivelled as himself, but short in stature, 
and, as if to counteract his own reticence, she was 
sharp and voluble of speech, and while unlike most 
of the First Napoleon’s generals — he had a rather 
insignificant nose — she had one of such undue 
prominence that it was suggestive of an eagle’s 
beak, especially when she screamed in indignation 
at refractory paupers, among whom were to be 
found a few unfortunates of weak intellect, and, at 
times, even lunatics. All these mingled together 
except when Cyrus Muggles chose to consign of- 
fenders against the discipline of the establishment 
to durance vile. This he did by locking each poor 
sinner up separately, either in one of two dark, damp, 
stone cellars under the poorhouse, or in one of 
two little outbuildings without windows, the doors 
of which were provided with padlocks. He had 
thus the means of solitary confinement for four at 
his command, besides which he was possessed of 
a couple of old fowling-pieces, a short whip with a 
long lash, and several sticks of various degrees of 
thickness, and all with formidable heads as weapons 
aggressive and defensive. 

The poorhouse was a plain frame building, 
nearly square, built on a stone foundation, and not 
unlike an ordinary roomy dwelling externally, with 
a few small outbuildings attached. It stood by 
the wayside, between Shoreham and a town ten 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


38 

miles distant, in a lonely spot, and the solitary 
woods — where stunted pines and scrub oaks alone 
flourished in the sand — almost environed it. 

To this forlorn retreat for the old and infirm, the 
idiotic and the demented, the widow and child of 
poor Zachary went one dreary morning in Novem- 
ber, a little more than three years after his death. 

It happened to be Thanksgiving day — the last 
Thursday in the month, and the widow’s own deso- 
late condition presented a contrast the more painful 
on this account to that of most of those around her, 
for in New England — and nowhere in New England 
more than in Massachusetts — it is the gala day of the 
year, when wanderers from the old homestead return 
to it as pilgrims to a beloved and revered shrine, with 
gladness in their hearts and loving greetings on 
their lips, to be welcomed and feasted by sires and 
grandsires, brothers and sisters, and those others 
of the family circle, young and old, which this 
alone of all the days in the year brings together in 
thousands of New England homes,— the day when 
the hand of labor is at rest, the sound of machinery 
hushed, the marts of trade closed, and only the 
churches and chapels in the land open in Sabbath 
hospitality to administer good cheer to Christian 
souls, — the day when the smoke from the great 
square brick chimneys of the wooden dwellings tells 
of the Thanksgiving feasts preparing in village 
kitchens, where the turkey, spitted and browning 
at the fire, is an almost ubiquitous bird, and the 
steaming flavor of mince pies is in the air, — the 
day when the old unbend to the young, and gray- 
beards frolic with the most juvenile of their kinsfolk, 
and good feeling prevails among re-united fami- 
lies of all degrees, rich and poor alike, and when 
not only New England but all the United States of 
America now make joyful holiday from Maine to 
California. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


39 

Hephzibah thought of the day and its happy 
and hospitable family gatherings in the homes 
around her, but her reflections only tended to sad- 
den her, for she had no home to welcome, or be 
welcomed, in, and the world to her had become an 
inhospitable waste, for she was forced to celebrate 
the day by throwing herself on the cold charity of 
the world. 

“Alas ! for the rarity 
Of Christian charity 
Under the sun.” 

She sat alone — with her child in her lap — on her 
solitary box of clothing and other effects, in a 
cart sent for her by the selectmen of the town, 
and driven by the same Ben Sherman who had 
helped Joshua Besse to bring home her dead hus- 
band in the fading light of that September day, 
when she swooned beneath the awful shock of 
being brought suddenly face to face with his corse. 

A sharp and boisterous northeast wind blew 
beneath a cold gray sky and made the rustling 
pines wave like funeral plumes passing quickly 
over a rough road, and soughed through the naked 
branches of those that had lost their leaves, and 
blew the latter, withered and dry, in whirling 
eddies, and then scattered them here and there — 
sentthem flying and reeling broadcast — as if it had 
a spite against them and made no secret of show- 
ing it ; — a wind that wrestled savagely with the 
tallest trees and tried hard to strip them of what 
little foliage still clung to their almost naked arms, 
as if they stood in its way and it wanted to get 
them out of it — those trees which but a few weeks 
before had been opulent of leaf, resplendent with 
the rainbow glories of decay, gorgeous with the 
sunset tints of October ; — a wind that raised clouds 


40 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


of dust on slight provocation, every wagon that 
passed over the roads leaving a comet-like tail of it 
in its wake ; — a wind that rushed in and out of open 
barns and woodsheds in heavy gusts as if searching 
for something it had lost, and suddenly remember- 
ing where it had left it ; — a wind that blew the smoke 
down from great chimneys, and occasionally back 
into them, as if it meant to punish it for daring to 
come out, and then went howling across meadows 
and rivers and ponds, rippling the scanty grass and 
the abundant water with equal impartiality on its 
way; an invisible spirit of the air that whistled a wild 
and plaintive tune round village churches, and 
through school house belfries, and sobbed and sang 
a dirge as if in sorrow among the gravestones in the 
lonely burying grounds, and then flew off in a lighter 
mood to join the still wilder winds that were lash- 
ing the face of Buzzard s Bay into foaming waves, 
and almost roaring through the rigging of a solitary 
schooner tacking into Shoreham Harbor ; — a wind 
that contrasted with the balmy breath of summer 
by the icy sting of winter it carried with it, and 
which blanched and pinched the dejected face of 
the widowed mother while it becomingly touched 
that of the happy and careless child with pink and 
blue as if it took artistic delight in making these 
nice discriminations, and was doing its best to 
temper itself to the shorn lamb, but with only in- 
different success, and which kept their hat and bon- 
net strings and tippets, if not their hearts, in a 
constant flutter, wHile it arranged their hair, as far 
as it could, to suit itself. 

“It was hard on you, mighty hard it was," 
remarked the driver of the cart, in allusion to the 
event which he inconsiderately introduced as a 
subject of conversation. 

“Don't talk about it, Mr. Sherman, it pains 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


41 

me,” said Hephzibah with tears in her eyes, for 
consolation when improperly administered only 
aggravates the affliction, and he relapsed into 
silence, which continued till he stopped in front 
of the poorhouse, when the paupers gathered at 
the windows, and flocked out towards the gate at 
the roadside, moved by natural curiosity and that 
fellow feeling which makes us wondrous kind. 

‘‘Stop that cryin’ ; there’s nothin’ here to cry 
for as I knows of, ’specially as it’s Thanksgivin’ 
day, an’ we’ve an extra dinner. Keep yer spirits 
up ! ” were the first words that Cyrus Muggles 
addressed to her after she crossed the threshold. 

We have all sufficient strength to bear the mis- 
fortunes of others, but Muggles was a Hercules in 
the ease with which he could endure any amount 
of them. Rousseau, who said we do not know 
what is absolutely good or bad fortune, the con- 
ditions of life are so mixed, might have been 
equally indifferent, for certain it is that the highest 
have their sufferings and the lowest their con- 
solations, but while he would have been so from 
philosophical contemplation Mr. Muggles’ indiffer- 
ence was due to an almost total want of sympathy 
with, or feeling for, his suffering fellow beings. 
One generous emotion, however, in the case of 
the widow, mitigated the cold brutality of his 
nature. 

“Oh, but I feel so sad and broken-hearted, Mr. 
Muggles, I can’t help it. I wish I could, but I 
hope God will give me strength to bear it all.” 

“You’ll bear it, I guess. Leave it to me; I’ll 
make you and the young un all right. This is 
nothin’ I can tell you when you be used to it. 
Eels, they say, gets used to skinnin’ even after a 
while. You’ve only to follow the rules, and do 
your share of the chores, and we shan’t quarrel a 


42 


A MARVELLONS COINCIDENCE, 


bit, I’ll bet. It’s only them as doesn’t follow the 
rules as gets into trouble. Stop that cryin’, I say; 
it’s agin the rules.” 

“Yes, stop that cryin’,” chimed in Mrs. Muggles. 
“It’ll be time enough to cry when you’ve some- 
thin’ to cry for. You ought to be thankful as 
you’ve a hum like this to come to.” 

“But it’s not like one’s own home, Mrs. Mug- 
gles — is it? And I can’t help thinking how sorry 
my poor husband would be to see me here.” 

^‘He might see you in a wuss place, Hepzy, 
and what’s the use of talkin’ of yer own hum if 
you hain’t got any ? Maybe he’s in a wuss place 
hisself,” with which snarling remark from the lips 
of Mrs. Muggles the conversation abruptly ter- 
minated. 


CHAPTER VII. 

The wretched occupants of the wretched Shore- 
ham poorhouse crowded round the widow and 
her child, like a pack of half famished wolves, 
and, on the principle that misery loves company, 
they were glad to see them added to their number. 

To do them justice, most of them pitied the 
feeble, heart-broken woman, and tried to soothe 
and cheer her in her distress, while they welcomed 
the bright little boy as a companion who prom- 
ised to make himself agreeable and entertain- 
ing. 

“Job, my precious, if it wasn’t for you, I don’t 
know what I should do,” were her words to him. 
“This is our new home — your poor sick mother 


J MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


43 

has no home of her own any longer — so you must 
be good, and mind what she says to you, or 
youll get her into trouble. Yes, my dear, you will, 
and she can’t endure much more. But you’ll be 
good, won’t you. Job? Yes, I know you will,” 
and she kissed him. 

He had been named Job by his father in accord- 
ance with the prevailing predilection of the people 
of eastern Massachusetts particularly and Amer- 
icans generally for Scriptural names, and Zachary 
esteemed patience — as exemplified by the Job of 
biblical history — a great virtue. On him, her sole 
offspring, her affections centered. He was her 
only joy, and it relieved her own melancholy to 
see that he was as happy in the poorhouse as he 
had been out of it, just as it comforts the crippled 
mendicant to see that his dog is as faithful to 
him as if he were a king, dogs and young children 
being, happily, equally unconscious of social dis- 
tinctions, and her greatest comfort was to talk to 
him and caress him. 

The boy, indeed, seemed to thrive more in the 
poorhouse than he had done in his old home, for 
he had the benefit of an abundance of fresh air in 
the former which he had failed to get in the latter. 
The mother, too, was physically the better for the 
change so far as food — inferior as it was — and air 
were concerned, but the sense of degradation she 
felt at having to live as a pauper preyed upon her, 
and went far to neutralize the improvement in 
other respects. 

“The Lord give me strength to bear it,” she 
said, “ but it’s very hard. My only comfort is my 
child, and my trust in Jesus. If it wasn’t for 
these my heart would break.” 

All who knew her were sorry she had to go to 
the poorhouse, but thought she was better off 


44 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


there than she would have been starving herself 
elsewhere, for though they had kind words for her 
they furnished nothing more substantial, and con- 
sidered that even in this retreat for the destitute 
she was living on their bounty, as they had their 
taxes to pay to support it. 

Although she was only the daughter of a former 
blacksmith in a neighboring town, she was better 
educated than most women of her station, the 
result of careful attention to her lessons at the 
public school house, and much application at 
home besides, for during her girlhood she had 
been anxious to excel in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge, and it was a proud day for her when she 
was appointed one of the school teachers at Sand- 
lake a short time before her marriage, a position 
which she relinquished, however, on the eve of 
that event. 

Although both Cyrus Muggles and his wife 
usually displayed an entire absence of feeling in 
dealing with the paupers their ordinary harsh 
manner was softened a little towards the widow 
of the man who had met with such a tragic end in 
the prime of life, and as Muggles had known him 
well, he was disposed to do better by her — to use 
his own words — than the common run of folks 
who found their way- into his asylum. But it was 
not long before he stood revealed to her as a 
monster of cruelty whose continued exceptional 
good-will could alone save her from a life of utter 
wretchedness, and of whom all the paupers ap- 
peared equally afraid to complain, fearing they 
would thereby only bring special punishment upon 
themselves at his hands, and deeming it better to 
bear the evils that they had than fly to others that 
they knew not of She was therefore obsequious 
to him, and we know that while deference and 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


45 


adulation will excite kindness, truth begets hatred. 

They were required to do all the work of the 
establishment under the superintendence of Mug- 
gles and his wife, and wilful neglect of this on the 
part of any individual among them — male or 
female — never failed to subject the delinquent to 
chastisement, or confinement under the silent sys- 
tem, while complaints about the quality or mea- 
greness of the diet provided met with similar and 
equally prompt correction, and to such an extent 
was the latter carried that some of their number — 
the hardened offenders, so to speak, of the little 
community — were more or less constantly covered 
with bruises. Moreover as one of the incidental 
consequences of imprisonment was what Muggles 
called “short commons” — or, in other words, a 
stoppage of all rations during its continuance ex- 
cept when the latter was so prolonged as to make 
their partial supply necessary to the keeping of 
body and soul together — these victims of the poor- 
house martinet waxed exceedingly lean and gaunt, 
like a shipwrecked crew reduced to dire extremities. 

“I’ll make you step around lively,” he would 
say, stick in hand, to the unlucky paupers who had 
incurred his wrath, as he assailed them, and until 
he had vented his wrath he was deaf to all peti- 
tions for mercy. 

As a rule Muggles beat the men and his wife the 
women, but he did not confine himself strictly to 
this, and sometimes he supplemented his own 
exertions to hers in flogging recalcitrant females, 
while in extreme cases he threw buckets full of cold 
water on them, and then dragged them by the hair 
of their heads to the dark cells in which he im- 
mured the objects of his wrath, where a little dirty 
straw and sawdust furnished the only bed they 
had to lie on, and was their only protection from 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


46 

the damp ground — at all seasons of the year, day 
and night alike. 

The weak man, says an Italian proverb, will 
always find some one to tyrannize over him — Ogni 
deholehasempre il suo tiranno — but in theShoreham 
poorhouse all the men seemed to be reduced to a 
common level of weakness, and were tyrannized 
over and maltreated accordingly. 

Among the number in the poorhouse whom 
Muggles looked upon as hardened offenders was 
a half-witted creature who had hardly reached 
womanhood, named Ruth Damper. It was a weak- 
ness of hers to make grimaces over her food when- 
ever she found it more than usually unpalatable, 
and these never failed to exasperate both Muggles 
and his wife, who regarded them as personally 
insulting to themselves, a reflection upon the 
cuisine of the establishment, and highly demoraliz- 
ing to the other paupers. 

“Look at her 1 Mrs. Muggles would say to her 
spouse whenever she observed one of these during a 
meal. 

“Give it her 1 ” the latter would respond, where- 
upon after taking up a cane that she kept in a corner 
near her, she would cross the room to the bench on 
which, with others, the offender sat, and strike her 
repeatedly with it over the head and shoulders, and 
beat her the harder if she raised her hands to pro- 
tect her scalp from the blows, exclaiming trium- 
phantly at the end of the castigation, “ There, take 
that ! 

If following this the grimaces were renewed ; if 
she upset her food, or spoke in anger, or otherwise 
did anything to excite fresh ire on the part of the 
Muggles’s, Mrs. Muggles would say, “Sil there 
she goes agin’, drat her,” upon which Si — mean- 
ing Cyrus — would reply, ‘ ‘ I guess I’ll fix her pretty 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


M 

quick. Come along here ! ” and as he spoke he 
would roughly pull her off the bench by one arm 
and lead her to one of the outhouses, when, having 
securely locked her in and put the key of the pad- 
lock in his pocket, he would return and finish his 
meal. If, however, she offered any resistance to 
this proceeding she fared far worse, as Muggles was 
not above throwing a bucket of water at her, striking 
her with his fists or one of his thick sticks, or drag- 
ging her by her hair along the ground, and some- 
times the poor creature would be so weakened by 
this brutal chastisement before she reached the 
lock-up as to be unable to stand, and there she 
w’ould be kept during her keepers pleasure, gen- 
erally for two or three hours only, but sometimes 
for a whole day, and even a day and a night, 
according to the estimated enormity of her offence. 
She had suffered under this kind of treatment and 
semi-starvation for more than three years, during 
which she had gradually grown more and more 
pallid and wasted in appearance when an attack of 
inflammation, followed by congestion of the lungs, 
brought on by incarceration in cold weather in one 
of the outhouses, ended her misery. 

“She's dead," said Muggles on that occasion, 
announcing the event to his wife. 

“I 'spected as much," was the reply — “a good 
riddance of bad rubbish, I say." 

‘ ‘ Guess it is, Maggy ; she was good for nothin' to 
nobody." 

Outside of the poorhouse her death excited no 
comment, nor a suspicion of its indirect cause, for 
no one save the paupers knew the facts, and not 
even these knew all, and the doctor who attended 
to cases of sickness among them did not consider it 
his business to inquire into the causes of disease, 
near or remote, and indeed thought the lives of 


48 A MARVELLOUS COLNCLDENCE. 

paupers of too little value to make it a matter of 
much consequence whether they were preserved 
or not. 

Another hard case — as he considered him — with 
which Muggles had to deal was a deformed and 
idiotic male named Dick Slagger, who looked like 
a boy, although he was at this time nearly thirty 
years old, and had been living in the poorhouse for 
years before Muggles took charge of it. His head 
seemed to rest on his shoulders without any inter- 
vening neck, and it sloped backward so rapidly 
from the eyes — with only a narrow strip of fore- 
head — that all his brain appeared to lie in a bunch 
at the back. He was very stubborn, very silent, 
and naturally malicious when aroused, but quiet 
when let alone. 

He never complained of the quality of his food, 
but sometimes wanted more of it than was served 
to him, and in order to get it would seize upon that 
of those who sat neat him, and proceed to greedily 
devour it, in which act, whenever observed by 
Muggles, he was summarily interrupted by that 
individual, who, giving him a whack with the before 
mentioned cane, cried, “ None of that ! ’’ and took 
it away from him. Sometimes the poor idiot whim- 
pered under the infliction and was gentle, but 
oftener he rebelled and grabbed at the forbidden 
food again, or, if that was beyond his reach, at 
anything he could lay his hands on. Muggles 
thereupon struck him afresh with the cane till he 
either brought him to order or made him writhe 
with pain, and then led him away to one of the 
dark cellars under the house, previous to which he 
not unfrequently ducked his head in a water butt 
sunk in the ground while holding him by the heels. 

Being locked up in the dark cellar always fright- 
ened and excited him, and he either yelled or 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


49 

moaned loudly. The noise provoked Muggles, and 
after losing his patience he would go, armed with 
one of his thick sticks, to the cellar door, immedi- 
ately on opening which the captive would throw 
himself against him in order to get out, instinctively 
struggling to get into the light and fresh air. 

Muggles would hurl him back with the exclama- 
tion : “No, you don’t. I came here to give you 
fits,” and follow up his words by striking him most 
unmercifully all over his body with the stick, after 
which he would leave him to his agony with the 
admonition — “Let me hear you again, and I’ll give 
you twice as good as that,” and, re-locking the 
door, grimly ascend the steps. It was not an unfre- 
quent occurrence for the idiot to be kept there for 
part of a day and the whole of a night, and on one 
occasion he was incarcerated for a whole week 
together. 

Still another pauper who proved troublesome to 
Muggles was a demented old woman known as 
Nancy Bump. She was nearly eighty years of age 
and the widow of a respectable mechanic, and after 
rearing several children she had survived them all, 
and was thus left friendless and destitute upon the 
cold charity of the world. 

“She’s the worst of ’em all,” remarked Mrs. 
Muggles, in reference to her, an’ I wish she was 
dead and gone. It’s time she was.” 

Nancy had a habit of shaking her fist at both 
Muggles and his wife, and calling them hard names 
in an incoherent way, as well as of destroying 
anything she could lay her hands on when in a 
passion. She was also addicted to pinching the 
other female occupants of the poorhouse, and 
pulling their hair — besides trying to frighten them 
out of their wits by strange and threatening antics 
— and was decidedly prone to mischief generally. 

4 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


50 

Whenever she became violent it was Muggles^s 
custom to make short work with her, as he called 
it. He would hold her by the shoulders while his 
wife beat her with a stick till she nearly fainted, 
and was rendered almost speechless, and then drag 
her by the hair or one arm to an outhouse, and 
there leave her in the dark, securely locked up till, as 
he phrased it, she came to her senses. 

She endured this kind of life for nearly five years 
and a half, and then died — worn out with the 
conflict — of what the doctor called natural decay, 
or old age, and again Mrs. Muggles exclaimed joy- 
fully — “A good riddance of bad rubbish indeed. 

Hephzibah lived in constant fear of provoking 
chastisement and imprisonment upon herself, but 
she was very circumspect in her conduct, and never 
wilfully neglected any of her appointed work, or 
found fault with her food or anything else connected 
with the establishment. But even she was often 
addressed in cruel and insulting language, and 
pushed about, and sometimes thumped by Mrs. 
Muggles, who had also disciplined her on several 
occasions by depriving her of her meals, while 
little Job was too frequently for his own comfort 
smacked and caned — in addition to having his ears 
pulled and boxed — by both Muggles and his wife, 
who appeared to look upon him as their common 
property. 

Hephzibah, however, learned what Seneca taught, 
that patience and resignation lighten every diffi- 
culty, and practiced them. A wise precept is that of 
Ausonius. “ If fortune favors you be not elated ; if 
she should frown do not despond,’' and well is it 
with him who can preserve an unruffled mind in 
all situations. 

At length one day at dinner Muggles was un- 
usually severe in flogging the idiot Dick Slagger^, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


51 

who by some means had possessed himself of 
a clasp knife belonging- to the former, and in the 
midst of a scuffle that ensued he plunged the 
blade deep into the body of the tyrant, and then 
gashed it terribly. Muggles struck the idiot sense- 
less to the floor with his stick, and then sank 
down by his side a mortally wounded man. He 
was carried to his bed, and after lingering for three 
days passed away, greatly to the relief and satis- 
faction of the surviving paupers he had so long 
tormented, but sincerely lamented by his faithful 
and disconsolate spouse, and his last words were : 
“ Give it him, Ma^ie I Let him have it ! probably 
in reference to the idiot, to whom he thus bequeathed 
a legacy of blows, showing the ruling passion to be 
strong in death. 

“Lm glad,'’ said little Job — who by reason of 
two years' additional growth had learned to talk 
better than he did when he first entered the poor- 
house. — “Mister Muggles is dead. Aren’t you, 
mother? ” 

“Yes, my dear, but it isn't right to say so, 
though the way he came to his end reminds me 
that ‘as ye sow so shall ye reap,' and ‘vengeance 
is mine, saith the Lord.'" 

But although Muggles has passed away, and a 
new poorhouse has been built, near where the old 
one stood, at Shoreham, the cruelties that rendered 
him infamous are still to a greater or less extent 
practised with impunity towards helpless paupers 
by their appointed keepers in other places in the 
old Bay State and New England, as well as in the 
great West, and indeed in every section of the 
United States. This, assertion is not meant to con- 
vey the idea that every county has its Muggles, 
but simply that here and there all over the country 
a Muggles akin to the typical jailer of the Middle 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


52 

Ages may be found in the smaller poorhouses, 
whose career of tyranny and outrage rarely meets 
with exposure, while his petty despotism over the 
unfortunates — sane and insane — committed to his 
care is as supreme as that of the captain of a slave 
dhow over the involuntary slaves on board. 

The Muggles's may be few and far between — it 
is to be hoped for humanity’s sake that they are — 
but they exist in varying forms and degrees of bad- 
ness, not only in poorhouses but in hospitals, 
penitentiaries and lunatic asylums, and the system 
that permits their existence imperatively calls for 
reform. That human beings should be so treated 
under such circumstances in the nineteenth cen- 
tury is a reproach to our civilization ; and highly 
reprehensible, and cruel, too, is the custom of 
herding lunatics and idiotic persons with sane 
paupers in county poorhouses. Here is a more 
inviting field than Africa for missionary labors 
and legislative inquiry. The State of New York 
has happily just taken the lead in the work of 
reforming this evil. But reform is unfortunately a 
slow coach. 


CHAPTER VIIL 

A NEW overseer for the poorhouse was appointed 
by the selectmen of the town in the person of one 
Ralph Wiggins, who, although rough of hand and 
speech, was a kind-hearted man, and Mrs. Mug- 
gles, who had acted as overseer pro iempore for a 
fortnight after her husband’s death, took her depart- 
ure to the great relief of the paupers. 

Cyrus Muggles had, however, not been dead 
much more than a month when an event occurred 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


53 

which had an important influence over Hephzibah’s 
future life. 

She had been domiciled in the poorhouse two 
years all but a month, and, by reason of gradually 
improving health and spirits — notwithstanding 
meagre diet and painful scenes and surround- 
ings — was beginning to think of doing something 
to earn a support for herself and child, when one 
fine October morning an infirm old man — one of 
the inmates — hobbled up to her, and said, “ Hepzy, 
Hepzy, — where be you? Here’s a stranger wants 
to say something to you,” to which she replied, 
‘‘Oh ! my 1 who can it be, I wonder?” 

She went round to the front piazza, and saw a 
plain, strong-looking, thick-set man apparently 
about thirty years old, and five feet ten inches, 
with a well-tanned swarthy skin, quick dark eyes, 
straight black hair already beginning to turn gray, 
and big brown hands almost horny with labor, 
a large nose, full lips, small irregular teeth, and 
a large head and face, which last beamed with 
a kindly, tender, winning, yet almost sorrowful 
expression as he saw the object of his visit 
approach. 

He was evidently a working man, although he 
was not dressed in his working clothes, biit in 
those worn by him only on the Sabbath, or on 
holiday occasions. To use his own language, he 
had on his “store clothes,” including his “ Sunday- 
go-to-meeting boots,” which neither fitted him 
well nor were as becoming to him as the rougher 
garments he usually wore from Monday morning 
till Saturday night, but working people of both 
sexes always labor under the delusion that they 
never look so well as when arrayed in their Sun- 
day finery, whereas the contrary is nearly always 
the case, and they appear awkward and act as if 


54 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

they were out of their element and their clothes 
didn’t belong to them. 

The visitor was Joshua Besse, but he had grown 
so much older looking since Hephzibah had last 
seen him, that for a moment she was not certain 

as to his identity. . , -r. t 

Then she muttered to herself— “ Josh Besse, 1 
declare, the slayer of my dear husband ! ” and in- 
wardly shrank from him, but she had suffered so 
much since poor Zachary’s death that she was glad 
to welcome any one who was likely to befriend 
her in her present desolate and destitute condition, 
and she walked forward to meet him, striving hard 
the while to keep from crying. 

Joshua met her, and, extending his hand towards 
her, warmly grasped the one she gave him, and 
said — “Good-day, Hephzibah ! How be you, and 
how’s the boy ? I heard you was here, so I came 
to see you, and ask you if I couldn’t do something 
to get you somewheres else. I feel a kind of 
responsible for you since I was the means of taking 
poor Zach away from you so, all of a sudden, and 
it’s grieved me ever since to think of it, and it’s 
made me feel bad, too, to think of what you said 
to me on the night I brought him home, and the 
way you treated me after that as if you couldn’t 
bear the sight of me. That was why I left Sand- 
lake, and looked for work where you’d never see 
me, and you never would have seen me again 
perhaps, if it hadn’t been that last month I heard 
you was in the poorhouse. Before that I hadn’t 
heard of you but once or twice since I left. When 
I heard that, says I to myself, ‘ That won’t do. 
I was the cause of her being left a widow in 
the way she was, and now she’s nobody to help 
her, but I’ll help her as far as I can, and see if 
I can’t get her out. ’ So I gave notice to the sav-* 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


55 

ings bank where I had my money that I wanted to 
draw a hundred dollars of it, and I came on here 
now to bring it you, and here it is. It’s hard 
earned money, but I’d rather you’d have it than 
spend it myself,” and, suiting the action to the 
word, he drew a small bag of gold coin from his 
pocket and held it towards her, but, penniless as 
she was, she so far hesitated about taking it that 
she failed to extend her hand. She looked first 
into the sympathetic eyes before her, and then at 
the ground, and burst into tears, at the same time 
averting her face, and burying it in the apron she 
raised to conceal her emotion. 

She experienced a revulsion of feeling that mo- 
ment in favor of the man she had previously looked 
upon only as the possibly guilty, possibly innocent, 
slayer of her husband. He now appeared in the 
character of a benefactor — a friend in need — to 
rescue her from a pauper’s life, and, perchance, a 
pauper’s grave. A feeling of gratitude took pos- 
session of her, and the first words she uttered, 
while her eyes were still suffused with tears, 
were — ^‘I forgive you, Joshua, and I never did 
till now. It’s very good of you to come to me 
here — very good, and I’m thankful to you for 
bringing me the money. I don’t know that I 
ought to take it from you though, for what I’ve 
lost is something that money cannot buy, but if 
you think it’s right that I should take it, and 
you’d rather I’d do it, I will. How Zachary 
would feel about my taking it, if he knew it, I 
don’t know. It depends upon whether he’s for- 
given you or not, I guess. I hope he has.” 

“He forgave me before he died,” rejoined 
Joshua ; “ I guess he did. Don’t you remember my 
repeating his own words the evening I carried him 
home ? 'Josh,’ said he, ' I forgive you.’ He knew 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


5 ^ 

it was an accident just as well as I did, and he 
knew how awful bad I felt to have done it. But 
let bygones be bygones, I say. What’s happened 
can’t be helped. God knows I’ve grieved enough 
about it. I’ve been a-grieving ever since, and 
there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to undo it if I could. 
He’s gone to his long account, just as we shall 
some day go to ours, and I guess when we all 
come together in the next world he won’t blame 
me.” 

“I hope not, I’m sure,” said Hepzy. 

“ I know he won’t ; I’m as sure of it as I am that 
I’m a-standing here,” and again he held the bag of 
gold towards her, and she took it. 

Just then a chubby little urchin of about six 
years, with bare legs and feet, rushed up to her, 
and took hold of her dress with both hands, and 
butted his head against her in the playful, affec- 
tionate, and romping way usual with boys and 
girls of tender years towards their mothers, or 
those who have charge of them, after doing 
which he turned round, and looked the stranger 
full in the face with an inquiring glance, as much 
as to say, “What are you talking to my mother 
for ? ” 

“ Be you little Job?” he asked, taking him by 
the hand. 

“Yes, it is little Job, and nobody else,” answered 
the boy himself. “ What’sjj^owr name ? ” 

“This is Joshua Besse,” interposed the mother. 
“Shake hands with him.” 

“Did he kill father ? ” 

“Yes, but it was an accident, and he was very 
sorry for it. You mustn’t speak about that ! ” 

“If he killed father then I want to fight him,” 
continued the child, and he ran fiercely at the 
visitor, and began to strike such blows as he was 


A MARVELLOUS COINCLDEMCE 


57 

capable of at his legs, his face meanwhile flushing 
with indignation and the unwonted exertion. 

“For shame ! How dare you do that, Job ? ’’said 
his mother, trying to pull him away, but Joshua, 
who was calmly looking down at the child, with a 
pleasant smile, observed — “Don’t stop him; let 
him have it out with me while he’s about it. He’s 
a-taking his revenge. Who’d have thought it in 
such a young one t He’s heard you tell about his 
father’s death, and who shot him, and feels to- 
wards me just as you used to, but I never deserved 
it. I was more to be pitied than condemned.” 

Job soon became exhausted, and, with the ex- 
clamation, “There!” he left his adversary, and 
went back to his mother’s skirts. 

“ He has the makings of a fine, plucky man in 
him,” remarked Joshua, as he looked at the child’s 
muscular legs and arms, his large head and thick 
brown hair, his elastic frame, healthy complexion, 
and clear, dark eyes, “but there’ll be no hold- 
ing him in when he once gets a-going. He’ll 
ride rough-shod over everything, and dive deeper 
and come out drier than most folks, I guess. He’s 
a likely boy and no mistake, and I like him be- 
cause he’s yourn. I alius said Zach’s children 
would be as handsome and smart as any there was 
a-going, and this here little chap proves I was 
right. ” 

Then, turning to the child, he said — “Come 
here. Job, and make friends I ” But Job, in the 
language of the country, didn’t see it, and frowned 
at his interlocutor, while still clinging to his 
mother’s skirts. 

“ Shake hands with him,” said his mother, push- 
ing him forward, and, after a little more urging, he 
complied, when Joshua, as a peace offering, pre- 
sented him with a silver quarter of a dollar, after 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


58 

which, having made his peace with his mother^s 
visitor, he scampered off to display his wealth 
elsewhere. 

“You must have found this place mighty dull 
and disheartening, Hepzy,"' remarked Joshua. 

“Yes, very indeed. It most killed me at first, 
but I got used to it in time, and some of the Shore- 
ham folks have been very kind in coming to see 
me once in a while, but old Muggles who died last 
month was an awfully cruel tryant, and I was 
dreadfully afraid of him. ” 

After some conversation on this subject, he said : 

“It seems to me you ought to get married again 
and have a home, and a spirit’s been and whispered 
to me since I heard you were in the poorhouse to 
come on here and marry you myself, that is if 
there’s no one else as wants you, or as you’d rather 
have, and if you’re inclined to say yes to it. You 
know, Hepzy, I alius loved you, and came near 
asking you before Zach did. It’s a kind of sudden 
way of putting it to you, I know ; but I’ve to go 
back to Providence to work, and haven’t any time 
for courting. I feel, as I was the means of killing 
poor Zach, I ought to take his place, leastways if 
you be willing, as a duty I owe his old woman — I 
mean his widdy — and I should have told you as 
much after the funeral if it hadn’t been for what 
you said and the way you looked at me and looked 
away again. You know we used to be very good 
friends till we quarrelled that time, and you remem- 
ber that punkin pie as you gave me one Thanks- 
giving. That was a nice pie, that was, with plenty 
of shortening in it. You alius knew how to make 
punkin pies first rate.” 

Then he paused for a moment, and said — “Well, 
what do you say to it .? If you be ready you’ve 
only got to say so, and we’ll be married, and go 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


59 

right off to Providence ; or Til try to get work at 
Sandlake or at the Old Colony Mills if you’d rather 
live in Shoreham.” 

Hephzibah listened attentively with downcast 
eyes, and brushed away a tear as he came to a full 
stop after uttering these words. 

“You’re very good to say what you do, Joshua, 
but if I wanted to ‘marry again ever so much I 
wouldn’t have you or any one else marry me from 
a sense of duty. I’m a poor forlorn creature, and 
don’t know that I ought to think of marrying 
again, but I’m surprised you should think of such 
a thing as marrying me.” 

“I shall feel the better for it in my mind, I 
know I shall, Hepzy. I’m bound to see you com- 
fortable anyhow, and there’s no way I can manage 
that so well as by becoming your husband. A 
woman’s a poor critter when she’s all alone in the 
■world without anybody to help her. I can love 
you as well as if you were younger and handsomer, 
though you be young and handsome enough, and 
I’ll be as good as a father to little Job, and we’ll 
get along together first rate. I’ll call you ^ Hepzy, 
old woman,’ and you’ll call me ‘Josh, old man,’ 
and we’ll be as happy as clams at high water. 
Come, say the word, you can’t do better.” And 
then stooping and looking her tenderly in the face 
he said softly — “ Hepzy, is it a bargain ? ” 


CHAPTER IX. 

Among the passengers by the packet ship Swallow 
which left the port of New York for Havana in the 
early part of December in the year in which they 
have been already introduced, were Mr. Peter 
Livingston and his wife and daughter. 


6o 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

The voyage was undertaken for the benefit of 
Mrs. Livingston’s health, which had suffered 
severely in consequence of the great domestic ca- 
lamity that had overtaken her in the loss of her only 
son. She was in a rather low nervous state, and 
her physician was of the opinion that the change 
tt) a warm climate would stimulate her physically 
and divert her mentally, for, said he to her, “Your 
body has been preyed upon by your mind, and 
what you need is diversion. Try to get out of your- 
self and forget your bereavement. The sooner 
you can do that, the sooner you will be well again. 
Mind and body react on each other, and there is 
no medicine for a mind diseased.” 

There were more than twenty cabin passengers 
on board the Swallow besides the Livingstons, in 
addition to nearly as many of the second class, and 
all went went well with her till the seventh day of 
the voyage, when she encountered a heavy north- 
east gale which gave her a taste of its quality at 
the outset by carrying away her maintop gallant- 
mast. Then, renewing the attack, it hurled a sea 
at her that stove in one of her boats and at the same 
time blew so hard that it split both her maintop 
sail and foresail, reefed though they were, and 
as she was rolling heavily and the sky looked 
inky and threatening and the ocean uncommonly 
yeasty, the ladies on board, and some of the 
gentlemen too, began to feel seriously alarmed. 

“We shall all be lost, and share poor Alexan- 
der’s fate, I know we shall,” said Mrs. Livingston 
to her husband. 

“ I trust not, my dear. Compose yourself,” he 
replied. “ I have encountered as rough weather 
as this before.” He was a man of perfect self- 
possession, who avoided extremes in everything ; 
one having an instinctive perception of the golden 
mean, the juste milieu^ and observing it. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. . 6t 

“ Speak to the captain, won’t you, dear ? and 
ask him if he thinks there is any danger. Oh, 
dear, I wish I was not so dreadfully timid ! ” 
continued Mrs. Livingston, for she was naturally 
of an anxious turn of mind and borrowed a good 
deal of trouble. 

“Ship captains never acknowledge danger till 
there is no hope, and sometimes not even then. 
There is always danger, however, on the deep, and 
those who go down to the sea in ships are pre- 
pared to meet it. Face the danger calmly, my 
dear, as I do, and put your trust in Providence, 
who holdeth the sea in the hollow of His hand.” 

Captain Simon Binnacle, who commanded the 
Swallow^ was an old salt who had a choice collec- 
tion of nautical epithets ready at his tongue’s end, 
which he distributed among his crew with entire 
impartiality as occasion required, and he was 
equal at any time to the task of throwing the 
most convenient belaying-pin at any indolent or 
refractory member of the ship’s company ; but 
when his orders were implicitly and expeditiously 
obeyed, and nothing occurred to arouse his anger, 
he was good-hearted and pleasant. 

Pie was about five feet ten and thickset, with a 
well-tanned face and big brown hands, and his 
face was shaven, excepting the chin, from which 
projected a long grizzly beard. Fifty-five years 
and a hard sea-faring life had furrowed his fore- 
head and left the impress of a few crows’ feet 
under his bright black eyes, and a scar on his 
right cheek told of a stab he had received long 
before in a melee on board a ship of which he was 
the first mate at the time. • He always carried a 
bowie knife in a sheath, for which he had a partic- 
ular pocket in his nether garments, and he was 
always chewing a quid of tobacco when not 


62 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


engaged in eating, while in his cabin he had a 
small arsenal of weapons always ready for imme- 
diate use. 

The gale had continued for more than forty-eight 
hours, and meanwhile the weather had been so 
very thick that it was impossible to take an 
observation, while the vessel had leaked to an 
extent which required the pumps to be kept con- 
stantly at work. 

“We are south of the Bahamas,” said the captain, 
in answer to an inquiry from Mr. Livingston. 
“We passed about twenty miles south of Great 
Abaco early this morning, and we are now west 
of Salt Key Bank. The water hereabouts is shallow, 
and in clear weather we can see the white sand at 
the bottom.” 

“There is no danger of our getting aground I 
suppose } ” 

“I guess not,” replied the captain, with a smile 
at the suggestion of such a possibility. “WeVe 
too far south for that. There’s never any land 
in sight here. The nearest of the Bahamas is 
many miles to the nor ard ; the coast of Florida 
is still further to the west, and the Gulf Stream lies 
between, and Cuba lies a long way to the south- 
west, so you see we’re well out at sea.” 

Suddenly, and while she was under three lower 
top-sails, main and foretop-mast staysails and reefed 
spanker, heading south-southwest, and drifting to 
the west-northwest about two knots an hour, the 
vessel struck bottom and remained fast, while the 
waves leapt wildly over her as if exulting in their 
prey. Immediately there was wild consternation 
on board, and the ladies screamed, Mrs. Livingston 
the loudest of all, but Mr. Livingston preserved his 
usual placidity, and said, “Calm yourself, my dear. 
Courage ! ” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 63 

‘‘But we may be drowned like our poor boy ! " 
“ Then let us be brave even in death. Trust in 
Providence, my love, and fear not ! " 

With the wind and sea as they then were it was 
evident that unless the vessel could be got afloat 
again very soon she would break up. 

“ She’s a gone-er ! ” said a suddenly despairing 
Job’s comforter among the second-class passengers 
to his companion. “It’s all up with the hull 
caboodle of us. Let us pray ! ” 

“I don’t know how to pray,” replied the other, 
seriously. “You pray!” 

“I don’t know how either, but we must do 
something religious to save ourselves and he 
looked at his friend anxiously and inquiringly. 
“Suppose, then, we take up a collection?” 

“ All right. Here’s a five-dollar piece I ” 

“Very well. Here’s another!” handing him 
the coin, and thus each man made the other the 
custodian of five dollars as a contribution for the 
good of their respective souls. It was the most 
extraordinary collection ever taken up, for it practi- 
cally amounted to a mere exchange of coins of 
equal value. 

These men, who had never made a sea voyage 
before, were the clown and ring-master of Dan 
Bryce’s circus troupe, a part of which was on 
board, it having been already announced to appear 
at Havana and Matanzas, as well as at other 
places in the West Indies, during the winter, but 
they were in no joking mood now. 

Dan Bryce and a few members of his company 
had gone with the horses by a vessel that sailed a 
few days previously, but the menagerie had been 
left behind in winter quarters, and a handsome 
runaway boy who had joined the circus at Newark 
was with the first detachment of the troupe. 


64 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


“ Lighten ship ! ” cried the captain, and the crew 
immediately began to throw cargo overboard, 
while hearts beat fast with fear, and the vessel 
labored heavily in the roaring, swirling sea, as if 
every instant she was in imminent danger of 
going to pieces where she lay, “rocked in the 
cradle of the deep.” 


CHAPTER X. 

In a short time after the crew of the Swallow be- 
gan to throw cargo overboard she had been so far 
lightened as to be again afloat, and — greatly to the 
relief of the anxious mortals whose fate hung upon 
her own — away she went, trembling and quivering, 
as she plunged forward after her narrow escape. 

The gale increased almost to a hurricane, and 
her fore and main top-masts broke like pipe stems, 
double-reefed though the topsails were, and there 
was renewed consternation among the passengers. 

The two men who had before taken up a collec- 
tion exchanged five dollars more with great trepi- 
dation, and then, as they heard the topsails loudly 
flapping and fluttering in the wind, where they had 
become entangled with the broken spars in the rig- 
ging, one of them said to the other, “ Make it ten ! ” 
and ten dollars instead of five was interchanged 
accordingly. 

Just after nightfall, and while all hands were cut- 
ting and clearing away the wreck, a fresh alarm 
was sounded. This time it was the cry of “Ship’s 
light ahead — on the port bow ! ” 

“Northwest by west!” shouted the captain to 
the helmsman, altering the vessel’s course, and the 
light was brought on the starboard bow. 

“Hard-a-port I ” yelled the captain as he thought 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 65 

he saw a light ; but before she had paid off two 
points he countermanded the order and had the 
wheel put “hard down.” 

A minute later a light about four points on the 
starboard bow became visible to those on the deck, 
and in less than another minute the strange ship 
struck the Swallow on .the starboard fore-channels, 
carrying away another piece of the foremast and 
the backstay, and breaking in her bulwark rail for 
about thirty feet, splitting the covering-board and 
plank-shear, splitting the planks from plank-shear 
to copper, and staving four planks in, through 
the timbers, besides demolishing all the starboard 
braces, backstays and bumpkin. 

The captains of both vessels hailed each other 
through their speaking trumpets, but neither could 
make out what the other said, and immediately 
they drifted' away in the roaring darkness. What 
the captain of the Swallow said was, “ Send a boat 
alongside. We’re sinking ! ” 

He bawled out this, without knowing the extent 
of the damage that had been done, in order to make 
the ship lay by until he was able to discover 
whether he needed assistance, and thereupon the 
passengers who heard him were panic-stricken. 
Those who had life-belts hurried to put them on, 
while others ran about wildly like hunted rats 
seeking the best means of escape, and some fell on 
their knees and with upraised and clenched hands 
uttered fervent supplications to the Most High. 

Mrs. Livingston almost lost her breath as she 
threw her arms around her husband, with her 
daughter clinging to her skirts, and asked, “Are 
we going down .? Tell me. If we are, don’t leave 
me ! Let us go together, and may God receive us 
both ! ” 

“Don’t be afraid, my dear,” answered Mr. Liv- 

5 


66 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

ingston, soothing^ly. Whoever grieves before it 
is necessary grieves more than is necessary. We 
have been in collision, but I don’t think there is 
any danger of our sinking.” 

It was Rochefoucault who said it is better to 
turn our attention to supporting the misfortunes 
which happen to us than to anticipating those which 
may happen. Generally — 

“ We fear the things we think 
Instead of the things that are.” 

Seneca, too, reminds us that our alarms are much 
more numerous than our dangers, and we suffer 
much oftener in imagination than reality, while all 
experience has proved that imagined terrors are 
more frequent than real dangers. Mr. Livingston 
was right, for after letting go the halyards and 
bringing the ship up to the south-southwest, with 
the yards square and the' sails aback, no serious 
damage to the vessel’s hull was discovered, and 
the pumps were sounded with a similar result. 
Blue lights, however, were seen burning a short 
distance astern, from which it was evident that 
the ship she had collided with was in distress, of 
which these were the signals. 

I guess we stove a pretty big hole in her, and 
she’s filling,” remarked the captain, “but we can’t 
help her. No boat could put off in such a sea as 
this and get back again. She’d be swamped as 
soon as she touched the water.” 

After being hove-to for about half an hour dur- 
ing which some wreckage was seen, by the lurid 
glow of one of her red lights, to float past — to 
which two or three men were clinging — the SwaU 
low resumed her voyage. 

Meanwhile the pair who were seeking salvation 
in their own peculiar way had knelt down in fear 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 67 

and trembling, and while on their knees — in which 
they were decidedly weak — had actually made an- 
other collection — on this occasion of twenty-five 
dollars — on the principle of swapping jack-knives. 

Before midnight, and while the wind was howl- 
ing and the sea roaring terrifically, the lookout on 
the foretop gave the- startling cry of “Breakers 
ahead ! ” 

There was fresh consternation among the pas- 
sengers, who had barely recovered from the terrible 
shock of the collision and their harrowing impres- 
sions as to the fate of the other vessel and all on 
board. The cry was echoed through the cabin, 
and Mrs. Livingston became almost hysterical. 

“ Hang me,'’ exclaimed the captain, “ if I don’t 
think they're the Dog Rocks on Salt Key Bank. 
Bear away to the west. Hard on your helm ! ” 
and the helmsman hauled the vessel close upon the 
wind to weather the rocks. 

“’All hands shake the reefs out of the mainsail 
and foresail ! " he yelled. 

“We are lost!” exclaimed Mrs. Livingston. 
“ It is a fatality in our family, I am afraid, that we 
should be drowned.” 

“Calm yourself, my dear,” said her husband. 
“ I am never afraid of death, and I don't think any 
of us will die before our time comes.” 

The captain's order had not been executed before 
the lookout on the foretopsail yard again made 
himself heard. “ Breakers on the weather bow ! ” 
was his cry. 

“Starboard your helm — hard a-starboard!” 
shouted the captain. 

There was a strong current from the west which 
had carried the vessel sufficiently far to the east- 
ward of her proper course to prevent her from pass- 
ing westward of the rocks ; and the captain, com- 


68 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


prehending- that this might be the case, gave the 
order he did in order to wear her round and head 
her to the eastward, so that she might pass to the 
eastward of the key bank, for it would have been 
hazardous to attempt to tack on account of the 
danger of her missing stay and being swept among 
the breakers. 

There was not a moment to weigh consequences. 
The wind was howling wildly in concert with the 
waves, and the breakers were tumbling and roar- 
ing like thunder over and against the rocks close to 
leeward, and never was sound more appalling to 
those on board, while, night having overtaken 
them, it was pitch dark. 

The scene from the deck was terrific. The scenes 
of terror transpiring among the passengers were 
painful to witness. In vain, Mr. Livingston, who 
had an iron nerve and was as calm in the face of 
danger as if he had been on terra firma, exhorted 
them to trust in Providence and not to be afraid. 
They were not to be comforted, and Mrs. Living- 
ston least of all. Her daughter, indeed, was much 
more courageous than herself, partly because in 
consequence of her youth she had a less lively 
comprehension of the perils by which she was 
surrounded, and, being in good health, was not a 
martyr like her mother to weak nerves. 

The ship wore round and headed to the east- 
ward ; and while the captain was anxiously hoping 
she would pass to the eastward of the bank, the 
lookout on the foretop shouted, ‘‘Breakers on the 
lee bow ! ” 

“Keep her close to the wind. Hard on your 
helm ! cried the captain. 

“ Breakers ahead ! ” a second later came from the 
lookout. 

The most apprehensive of the passengers who 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


6g 

were clinging to the bulwarks or rigging on deck 
felt the suspense becoming dreadful, and uttered 
cries at this juncture which caused the captain to 
order them to go below. 

The two men who didn’t know how to pray 
again took up a collection, and this time exchanged 
twenty dollars. 

The wind was whistling like a thousand demons 
let loose through the rigging, and the vessel rolled 
till she almost lay broadside on and her yardarms 
touched the water. The breakers were roaring 
and surging under her lee as if they would tear the 
very rocks to pieces. 

The leak was rapidly gaining on her, there being 
about five feet of water in the hold, and the crew 
were so exhausted with pumping and their other 
labors that the male passengers were called upon 
to take turns every half hour at the pumps, and they 
complied cheerfully, Mr. Livingston encouraging 
them by his example. 

On went the vessel, laboring hard and straining 
at every point — 

“Like some strong swimmer in his agony,” 

when, with a terrible crash, sounding even above 
the roar of the elements, she broached-to and, with 
her sails blown to shreds, and her main-yard car- 
ried away, she was utterly unmanageable. 

The sea was leaping and dancing over her and 
sweeping the decks from stem to stern, as if it 
would submerge her every instant. The crew were 
demoralized and confused, and the roar of the hur- 
ricane was so great that it was impossible for them 
to hear orders from the speaking trumpet at a dis- 
tance of more than a few feet. 

The two men once more took up a collection and 
exchanged eighty dollars^ which was Ml that on© 


70 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


of them had with him in cash, but if they had had 
a thousand apiece they would have exchanged that 
just as willingly. 

Mrs. Livingston was on her knees in her state- 
room praying, with her daughter kneeling beside 
her, in momentary expectation of going to the bot- 
tom, while Mr. Livingston was doing his best to 
cheer and support them, and prevent his wife from 
rushing frantically about at the imminent risk of 
life and limb. 

The vessel's position was perilous in the extreme, 
and all expectation of weathering the key was 
abandoned. One chance only remained to get her 
before the wind again, to bend a new foresail, and 
head her for the breakers, in the forlorn hope of 
finding a passage between the rocks, wide and deep 
enough to allow her to pass through. 

“ If she goes broadside on," said the captain to 
his first mate, “she’ll go to pieces in two minutes, 
so this is all v.^e can do. If she strikes going 
through the shoal we’ll lash ourselves to the wreck. 
Have your lashings all ready." 

It was hit or miss — a desperate venture, but the 
only alternative to allowing her to fall broadside 
on the rocks. The captain knew there were such 
spaces between the latter, although ships had never 
been known to sail through them. 

The sail was rigged, but not till the vessel was 
almost among the breakers, and then she was 
headed as well as it was practicable to do so for the 
possible opening, and away she reeled towards it, 
while the crew busied themselves in getting the 
small lines together for lashings. 

They had need of them, for no sooner was she in 
the boiling surf than she struck the rocks with a 
tremendous crash, and immediately fell over on to 
her beam ends and began to fill 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


71 


The two men vainly attempted to collect all that 
they could from each other over again, for at that 
moment they were thrown from the starboard to the 
larboard side of the vessel by the violent lurch 
she gave. The scene on board then beggared de- 
scription, and wind and sea combined to drown the 
cries of human anguish that arose amid the awful 
maddening uproar. 

“We are lost! We are lost!” gasped Mrs. 
Livingston, with her daughter clinging to her for 
protection, and sobbing bitterly. 

“ My dear,” said Mr. Livingston, grasping her 
hands and balancing himself in the best way he 
could, but perfectly calm and collected, “while 
there’s life there s hope. Compose yourself ! We’ll 
take to the boats, and if we perish, let us die with 
Christian resignation and say, ^The Lord’s will be 
done.’” 


CHAPTER XL 

Some of the crew were washed overboard when 
the ill-starred Swallow fell among the breakers, and 
several of the passengers shared a like fate. 

The two circus men who didn’t know how to 
pray, but were religiously inclined, were greatly 
terrified and much bruised after being flung from 
one side of the vessel to the other as she fell over, 
and as, sprawling and separated, they tried to col- 
lect their senses in view of the near prospect of 
death, a bright idea struck one of them — the indi- 
vidual who had originally proposed prayer.. 

He remembered that he had a piece of chalk in 
his pocket, and also that the cross was the emblem 
of the crucifixion and faith, and that he had ofteq 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


72 

seen it on churches. Immediately he thought the 
next best thing to praying was to chalk a cross on 
his forehead, and having done it he excitedly dupli- 
cated it on both cheeks ; and as his anxiety about 
his soul’s salvation, which he had previously so 
much neglected, increased with the nearer approach 
of death, he hurriedly chalked large crosses on his 
garments also. 

After a short time, in the midst of the confusion, 
the two men, drenched to the skin by the seas that 
swept over the wreck, again came together. 

“Let’s take up another collection,” said the 
trembling compagno7i de voyage of the one who 
had chalked himself. 

“Oh, no, that’s played out. Here’s apiece of 
chalk ; cross yourself as I have done.” 

He took the proffered chalk and excitedly made 
a cross with it on his waistcoat, and handed the 
chalk back. 

“Put on a few more if you want the full effect,” 
said his friend, handing him back the chalk, and 
he complied, after doing which he observed anx- 
iously, “If that and the collection don’t save us, I 
, don’t know what we can do, Fred ! ” 

“ Nor I,” responded the other. “ I wish I knew 
how to pray ! ” 

“ So do I. Suppose we try } ” 

“Well, go on ! You begin ! ” 

“ Glory ! Hallelujah ! Amen ! ” 

“ That’s good. Go on ! ” 

“ I don’t know any more. You try ! ” 

“Oh! Lord forgive us our sins, and call it 
square 1 ” 

“Amen!” shouted the other, and just then a 
heavy breaker, escaping from the boiling, thunder- 
ing surf, swept them from where they clung — and 
where they had been trying to lash themselves to 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


73 

the lower rigging — and carried them away in the 
darkness. 

“Cowards die many times before their death ; 

The valiant never taste of death but once.” 

Before daylight the wreck began to break up, 
and portions of the cargo were washed out of the 
hold at every surge of the angry surf. The gale 
had abated none of its fury, and the helpless crew 
and passengers — tied by small lines to the masts, 
rigging and other available points of the wreck — 
anxiously, almost despairingly, awaited the dawn. 

Those hours of suspense were terrible to bear, 
and the situation might well have appalled the 
stoutest heart. The roar of the hurricane was so 
great that the moans and cries of anguish which 
were from time to time uttered were lost in it, and 
lips unused to prayer moved in earnest petitions to 
heaven for help. 

It has often been found that weak women have 
endured hardships and survived sufferings under 
which strong men have succumbed, and in the 
present instance the women on the wreck were 
fully equal to the men in outliving the perils and 
the pains of that awful night, and Mrs. Livingston 
and her daughter were among those which at the 
break of day were revealed lashed to the rigging, 
with the husband and father close beside them, 
waiting patiently, like the rest, for that relief which 
it was feebly hoped the day would bring. 

The light at last served to show them their sur- 
roundings, of which they were before ignorant. 
They saw close by them black, irregular, surf- 
worn rocks, some on a level with the water, and 
others rising considerably above it, and a little 
further away a long, low, narrow, rocky and sandy 
key, or bank, entirely void of vegetation, with 


3IARVELL0US COINCIDENCE. 

another and smaller key, similarly barren, running 
nearly parallel with it, about five miles distant, 
while all around and beyond rolled the turbulent 
ocean, unmarked by a single sail or sign of land, 
and with not a penciling of either on the dim 
horizon. 

The surf was playing in and out of the wrecked 
vessel, and had carried away several feet of the 
stem and the whole of the stern, and broken tim- 
bers and fragments of the cargo were visible here 
and there on the rocks and the key. She was lia- 
ble to break in two amidships at any moment, and 
then the breakers would soon scatter her remaining 
timbers. 

One boat — the longboat — was still intact, which 
the captain had carefully guarded as the sole means 
of possible escape from the wreck, and this he now 
prepared to launch ; but the work was one of enor- 
mous difficulty, even if at all practicable, while the 
surf was so heavy, for the wind was still blowing 
hard — although it had abated considerably — and 
the sea was running mountains high, and beating 
against the rocks and key with tremendous fury. 

It was not till afternoon, however, that the 
weather moderated sufficiently to permit of the 
captain and crew freeing themselves from their 
lashings sufficiently to allow them to work, and 
then the boat was let down from the davits on the 
upper side of the vessel. 

Before being lowered, fifteen of the passengers 
and crew had taken their places in her, including 
all the women and children of the survivors. Mr. 
Livingston went with his wife and daughter, and 
the second mate, who was placed in charge, sat in 
the stern to steer. 

Mrs. Livingston looked pale and fatigued, but she 
had undergone a remarkable change, for she was 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


75 


perfectly calm and evidently resigned to her lot. 
Indeed she appeared more indifferent to life and her 
surroundings than any other of the eight women 
and three female children on board the frail launch, 
all of whom having been drenched the whole night 
through with salt water presented a forlorn and 
pitiable spectacle in common with the rest of the 
passengers and crew. Moreover, not one on the 
wreck had tasted food or water since the vessel 
went on the rocks. 

The object of Captain Binnacle was to land all 
hands on the key and then save whatever was 
possible from the wreck. 

“Our only chance after that,” said he, “is to 
hail some passing craft, or strike out for Cuba in 
the boat, in the hope of being picked up on the 
way, for it would be a miracle if she got there with 
what water and provisions she could carry, even if 
we had them for her.” 

“God save us!” spoke Mr. Livingston. “Let 
us trust in Him, and be brave I ” 

As soon as the boat touched the water the fast- 
enings were cut loose, and at one bound of the 
awful swell she was flung past the wreck and clear 
of the rocks, only, however, to turn completely over 
amid the shrieks of the women and children and 
the despairing cries of the men. 

“I was afraid of that,” said the captain, “but 
we had to do something. We shall break up here 
pretty soon, and if we don’t get off sooner it will 
be all up with us.” 

The two male passengers in the boat besides 
those already mentioned were the men who had 
so assiduously tried to collect their way to heaven, 
and who had been borne away in the darkness 
when the vessel was swept by a heavy sea after 
going on the rocks. They had not, however, been 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


76 

carried off the wreck, but only from the forward to 
the after part, where they were thrown against the 
lee scuppers. 

These men naturally made desperate efforts to save 
themselves when the boat capsized, and both suc- 
ceeded in clambering on to her bottom as she came 
up. At the same time Mr. Livingston struggled 
up to it with one arm grasping a female figure, 
which, with the assistance of the men referred to, 
he succeeded in placing on the boat, and then 
darted away — for he was an expert swimmer — and 
clutched another and smaller female figure which 
had just risen to the surface. This, too, he suc- 
ceeded in getting on to the boat’s bottom in the 
same manner, and then climbed on to it himself. 

He was incapable of further effort, and saw with 
pain the disappearance of the last of the poor 
women, who, weighed down by their clothes, were 
unable to reach the boat. Moreover, the keel was 
already crowded. He had succeeded in saving his 
wife and daughter, and for this he was inexpressibly 
thankful, and uttered a brief and fervent prayer for 
their deliverance from a watery grave. 

The second mate had shared the fate of the miss- 
ing women and children, and those on the upturned 
boat clung to it with the tenacity of despair. 

Mrs. Livingston moaned, her daughter shrieked^ 
and the two men who had developed a talent for 
collecting tried to ctHlect their senses by uttering 
loud and plaintive cries. Mr. Livingston alone 
was mute with a heroic fortitude superior to the 
accidents of earth. 

“ Madeline,” said Mr. Livingston to his daughter, 
“be calm! Florence,” he added addressing his 
wife, “courage! we may be saved yet 1 Don’t let 
go your hold ! ” 

His presence of mind, his dauntless heroism, his 


A MAJ^F£LLO[/s COINCIDENCE. ^7 

invincible courage, his self-denying devotion, were 
grand, and he was in spirit, at least, the equal of 
any of those, heroes, ancient or modern, whose 
deeds have been the theme of song or story. 

While the boat was drifting away from the wreck, 
and rising and falling with the tremendous sea in 
a way calculated .to make those clinging to it 
release their hold through giddiness, some heavy 
breakers — urged on by the rising tide — swept over 
the wreck, almost submerging it, and what was left 
of the SwallowhxoVQ in two amidships with a crash- 
ing noise, and all on board were precipitated into 
the roaring, boiling surf. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Just as you say, Joshua,'’ said Hephzibah, in 
reply to the momentous question, if you’ll prom- 
ise to make me a good husband, and take me for 
better or worse, and be kind to my boy. But if 
you're going to be sorry for it after you've done it, 
I'd rather stay as I am, for I'm getting my health 
back, and I shall be able to earn enough to live on 
— with God’s help — by my needle. Then I think 
folks should only marry for love, not but what 
I've seen plenty of girls marry for the sake of a 
home ” 

“Oh, we'll love each other easy enough after 
we’re married. Haven’t I alius loved you } ' inter- 
rupted her suitor. “Folks marry for love, and 
pretty often get disappointed, I guess ; but who 
says we're not going to marry for love ? If we're 
not going to marry for that I don't know what else 
it's for. If we weren't standing out here in front of 
the piazza, Hepzy, I'd give you a kiss just as a 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


78 

test to begin with, but as that might set all the old 
men and women in the poorhouse by the ears, I 
won’t do it.” 

Hephzibah smiled, and, with a slight blush warm- 
ing her features, looked better than she had done 
for years. 

“Who’d have thought of such a thing as this 
happening ? ” she asked. ‘ ‘ It’s like something one 
reads of in story-books. It’s seldom a man goes 
to look for his wife in the poorhouse, and you’re 
the last one I ever expected to see here, but Provi- 
dence works in a mysterious way, and all things 
work together for good to them that love God.” 

I guess that’s about so,” observed Joshua, seri- 
ously, as if something entirely new had been an- 
nounced to him, and he thought it a good idea, 
for his knowledge of the Scriptures was by no 
means profound. 

While the two were standing by the fence in front 
of the poorhouse, and at a sufficient distance from 
the latter to avoid being overheard by the inmates, 
the Reverend Nahum Gibbs, the Methodist minis- 
ter at Shoreham, came up to the gate and said, 
“Good-day, Hephzibah ! Praise the Lord for this 
fine weather. Glory to God in the highest ! ” 

He was a minister who had been only about a 
year and a half in the place, and Joshua had never 
seen him before, but as soon as Hephzibah had in- 
troduced him, he said, “Mr. Gibbs, you be just in 
time. Be you willing to marry us two right away 
where we stand .? ” 

“My good friend,” he replied, “you astonish 
me, but if you mean what you say, and Hephzibah 
consents. I’ll do it.” 

“Oh, yes; she’ll consent, I guess. Won’t you. 
Hepzy?” 

“ I’d rather have a little more time to think about 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


79 

she replied, ‘‘but if youVe very anxious we 
should be married by Mr. Gibbs now, I don't know 
as I ought to refuse.” 

“There's no time like the present,” responded 
Joshua, “ and Providence seems to have sent Mr. 
Gibbs here on purpose to marry us just here.'^ 

This was an argument after Hepzy's own heart, 
and she replied, “Well, maybe He did, and I’ll 
do whatever you say, and trust in the Lord ! ” 

“ Then we be all ready to be made man and 
wife, Mr. Gibbs,” said Joshua Besse, and the much 
surprised clergyman began to collect his wits for 
the performance of the ceremony. 

“ Brother,” said he, “and sister, hadn't we better 
go inside } ” 

“No,” answered the groom, “we don't want to 
be married in the poorhouse. The open air’ll suit 
us better.” 

“You want some witnesses, and a place to kneel 
and pray. Are you prepared, brother, for this 
solemn event? And you, sister, are you prepared 
for it too ? ” 

The responses were in the affirmative. 

By this time two old men, leaning on sticks, and 
one old woman, with her knitting in her hands, 
had, moved by curiosity, come out of the poor- 
house and joined the little group to hear what the 
parson was saying. 

“Brother,” said the latter to one of the former, 
“ go into the house, and bring me out a Bible and 
hymn book, and God be with you. Our brother 
and sister here are to be married. Glory to Jesus ! 
Bless the Lord ! ” 

“ What ! ” exclaimed the old man, ‘ ‘ Hepzy to be 
married ! ” and lost in wonder he hobbled away to 
get the desired books, and announce to the other 
inmates the prodigious news, It flew from mouth 


8o 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


to mouth through the paupers’ domicile almost be- 
fore he had well crossed the threshold, and all who 
could hurried to join the gathering by the gate, 
while those who were unable to leave the house 
made their way to the front windows and strained 
their eyes to see what was going on. 

The old man soon hobbled back, almost out of 
breath, with the Bible and hymn book in one hand, 
and his stick in the other. 

Meanwhile the poor-folks, as the inmates of the 
place were called, had crowded round the bride 
and groom and the Methodist preacher, and tried to 
extract as much information as possible from the 
trio with regard to so unexpected an occurrence. 

“ How sly she was not to tell us ! ” said one old 
woman sotto voce to another. Who’d ’a’ thought 
it } It's Josh Besse ! ” whispered a second. “It’s 
a curious thing — this is, ” observed a third. ' ‘ What 
does it mean, I wonder .? ” queried a fourth. ^ ‘ F oiks 
have queer ways wi’ them now-a-days,” was the 
remark of a fifth. “Is he goin’ to take her wi’ 
him ? ” inquired a sixth ; while others plied the 
preacher freely with questions, such as ^‘When did 
they send for you ” “ When did you know of it 

first .? ” and “Are they really to be married ? ” 
“Yes, they’re really to be married if I marry 
them,” said the preacher aloud, in reply to the last 
query, “ and may the Lord bless them.” 

“Join your hands,” he exclaimed, turning to the 
couple to be married, and then added: “Sister 
Hephzibah, do you take brother Joshua as your 
lawfully wedded husband ? ” 

The bride faintly answered, Yes ! ” 

“And you, brother Joshua — do you take sister 
Hephzibah to be your lawfully wedded wife ? ” 

“ Yes ! ” and at the same time he placed her old 
wedding ring on ner finger, she having previously 
taken it off for the purpose. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 8r 

Then I pronounce you man and wife, and may 
God in His mercy bless and protect you. Let us 
pray ! upon which he, and the newly married 
couple, and a few others, knelt, while he uttered 
a fervent prayer, following- which he rose and read 
a chapter of the Ne,w Testament, and then gave 
out a hymn, which all united in singing. 

By this time a small crowd had collected in the 
road, as all passing the poorhouse stopped to wit- 
ness a ceremony so unusual there, or indeed any- 
where not under cover, and a spontaneous “ Hur- 
rah ! " arose from its midst when the preacher 
concluded by pronouncing a benediction — a cheer 
which was echoed by those on the inner side of 
the fence to the best of their ability, while all the 
old women and two of the old men in the congre- 
gation who were inmates of the poorhouse took 
their turn in kissing the bride. 

‘‘So it’s all over, and they be married ! Well I 
never ! ” said one of the old women to those 
about her, and this was the beginning of a running 
commentary on the proceedings. 

“ Here, Mester Gibbs, is a gold dollar piece for 
you, and we be much obliged to you,” spoke 
Joshua, to which the preacher replied, taking the 
proffered coin — “ I didn’t want you to pay me any- 
thing, but I’ll take it if you wish.” 

Then the company began to disperse, and little 
Job came running up to his mother asking what 
was the matter. She took him by the hand, and 
said — • 

“Job, my pet. I’ve been getting married, and 
Joshua Besse’s your father now.” 

“I won’t have him. What does he want to 
come here for? ” and the child began to whimper 
as if he had heard rueful tidings. 

“Pack up your things, Hepzy, and we’ll take 


^2 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

the Taunton coach on the way to Providence this 
afternoon if you’re ready,” said Joshua. The 
ride’ll do you good. I guess I might as well keep 
on a-working there as anywheres else, and if you 
get homesick, why, we’ll come back to Shoreham.” 

“Very well, Joshua, I’ll get ready. Come, Job ! ” 
and leading the boy by the hand, with the rest of 
the company following, she re-entered the poor- 
house, and began to gather her odds and ends of 
wearing apparel, and other effects, together, and to 
dress in her best clothes — such as they were — for 
the journey. Then she dressed Job in his Sunday 
best, too, by putting on his shoes and stockings, 
a ragged jacket, and an old felt hat. 

As she had not bought a single article of cloth- 
ing since her husband s death, but had saved and 
patched and mended in the best way she could, 
and worn his old shoes, big as they were, when 
her own were worn out, her stock of apparel would 
have been exceedingly small had it not been for a 
few things that her neighbors had given her to re- 
lieve her actual necessities, and since she had been 
an inmate of the poorhouse she had been supplied 
with shoes and stockings of which she previously 
stood much in need. 

When in about half an hour after leaving him 
she rejoined her husband she was ready for the 
journey and arrayed in an old brown stuff gown 
diversified with spots and stains, an old red plaid 
woolen shawl, worn threadbare and running to 
holes in certain places, and an antiquated straw 
bonnet with blue ribbons. 

In the character of the bride of the poorhouse 
she was a success, that is to say, she presented a 
befitting appearance, but as a bride according to 
all conventional ideas she was a failure. Hold- 
ing her child by the hand she would haye made a 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, §3 

very effective widow in distress on any stage, and 
the basket she carried on one arm would have been 
an appropriate receptacle for donations for her 
relief. 

“All ready, eh, Hepzy? I hailed a wagon to 
take us where we can get on the coach when it 
comes up. Where be your things } — all in that box 
— eh? all right. Here goes,” and he put the box 
on the cart, and then helped Hepzy, and lifted Job 
into the latter, where they took their seats on a 
board placed across it, and then got in himself. 

The Methodist minister, and all the inmates of 
the poorhouse who had followed her out of it, 
gathered round the cart, some of the old women of 
their number with tears in their eyes, and old shoes 
in their hands, to bid good-bye to the departing 
bride, and wish her a hearty God-speed, and a few 
seconds later the bridal party moved away amid a 
vigorous waving of hats, sticks, and handkerchiefs, 
a shower of old shoes — to be afterwards picked up — 
and an outburst of inharmonious but enthusiastic 
cheers, that were repeated again and again by 
more or less cracked, wheezy and discordant voices 
until the occupants of the moving vehicle were out 
of hearing, although Hepzy could still be seen look- 
ing back, like Lot’s wife, and shaking her blue 
bandana in the air as a parting signal of affection to 
her old friends, with little Job beside her doing like- 
wise with his cap, and Joshua looking round with 
a smile on his face which showed that he was glad 
to be bearing his bride to a happier home, and that 
the receding poorhouse would know her no more. 
Well might he have spoken of himself that which 
Julius C^sar said of his victory over Pharnaces at 
Zela, “ Vent, Vidt, Via'/” and gone on to quote: 

* ‘ Was ever woman in this humor wooed ? 

Was ever woman in this humor won ? 


34 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


What ! I, that killed her husband — 

To take her in her heart’s extremest hate, 

With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, 

With God, her conscience, and these bars against me, 
And I no friends to back my suit withal, 

But the plain devil and dissembling looks. 

And yet to win her — all the world to nothing 1 ’* 


CHAPTER XIIL 

*‘My goodness, Mr. Besse ! ” exclaimed Widow 
Stetson, who kept the house at which Joshua 
boarded in Providence, late on the following after- 
noon, as she met him at the front door with a box 
on his shoulder, and a woman and a little boy- 
close behind him. 

“Here I be again,” said he, “a married man 
with a family ! ” 

“Lor’ bless me, you don’t say so?” and she 
looked at the woman and child in sheer amaze- 
ment. 

“ Don’t I though ? You’ll see,” and putting down 
Hepzy’s box he introduced her thus — 

“This is my ole woman, Mrs. Stetson, and I 
want you to know her, and make her comfortable. 
We were married yesterday, and we be just off our 
wedding journey. Don’t we look as if we be? 
And this little fellow here must be taken care of, 
too, for he’s her boy, and so I’ve married them 
both. She was a widow, you see, and her folks 
belonged to Shoreham, and I know you’ll get 
along first rate together. ” 

“This is the suddenest thing I ever heard on,” 
replied the widow, casting a rather contemptuous 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, §5 

glance at Hephzibah and her habiliments, and then 
at Job and his apparel. “ Why didn’t you tell me 
what was coming when you was going away so 
as I could have got ready for you? It almost takes 
my breath away to think of it. And you’re back so 
soon too, but I guess as I can make things right 
for you. You’re not fooling me, are you ?” And 
she smiled at him inquiringly, as if she was not 
quite sure in her own mind that he was not playing 
a practical joke upon her. 

“Not a bit of it. You’ll find no foolin’ about 
me.” 

The fact was that Mrs. Stetson felt dreadfully dis- 
appointed to learn that Joshua Besse had married, 
and that neither she nor her daughter — a good- 
looking girl of nineteen — was his bride, although 
either of them would have been happy to marry 
him. He had been very friendly with both of 
them, each of whom had heretofore always re- 
garded him as an eligible bachelor, and a possible 
suitor, for he had never given the slightest intima- 
tion of being engaged to be married, or even of 
having a preference elsewhere, and the widow 
looked upon this clandestine act of his as exceed- 
ingly unfair to herself, and a very unkind cut 
indeed. 

“And such a thing as he’s brought home with 
him, ” said she to her daughter when she communi- 
cated the tidings to her in the kitchen, — “a widow 
with a boy of six or seven with her, and I don’t 
know how many more she hasn’t got. She’s as 
wizened a thing as ever 1 put my eyes on. And 
he’s the one as used to be telling how fond he was 
of good looks. What next I wonder ? If any one 
had told me he’d ha’ done so I wouldn’t ha’ believed 
it.” 

It was like adding insult to injury for him to 


86 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


have married and displayed such bad taste in his 
choice, when such a comely and buxom creature — 
“fat, fair, and forty — as Mrs. Stetson was ready to 
welcome him to her heart, arid when her blooming* 
daughter would have been happy to embrace any 
offer he might have made her if the widow herself 
had failed to fascinate him. It looked like a reflec- 
tion on their own beauty for him to have preferred 
such a creature as Hepzy to either of them, and 
this was much more galling to the mother than 
to the daughter, for the former felt that she had 
missed a chance at a time of life when such chances 
are few, while the daughter herself placed a much 
smaller value on Joshua as a husband, and reminded 
her mother that there were as good fish in the sea 
as had ever been taken out of it. 

“ Maybe there be,'’ was her parent’s rejoinder, 
“ but a bird in the hand’s worth two in the tree, 
they’re so mighty hard to ketch, and as I heerd some 
one once say, ‘There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup 
and the lip.’ That’s the way wi’ most everything 
in this world, Susan. Things is disappointing. You 
look for something good to happen, and all at once 
something else comes that’s very different, if it 
doesn’t knock you right down. As Dr. Dodge the 
old Presbyterian minister said when the letter came 
telling us )'-our father was drownded four years 
come nexfDecember. — ‘ Man is born to trouble as 
the sparks fly upward,' and there never was any- 
thing truer.” 

“I thought what he said was — ‘Man as is born 
of a woman is of few days and full of trouble, ’ as 
the Bible says.” 

“ He said that, too ; both of 'em’s in the Bible. 
Haven’t I read it more than you have, do you think ? 
Thank goodness, I alius lived in fear of the Lord, 
but it’s many a cross we have to bear all the same, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


s; 


and ‘ whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, ’ as I 
was taught to remember at school. How true it 
is as troubles never come alone. Here that hand- 
some china sugar basin as IVe had for so many 
years was broken yesterday all to pieces, and it 
was only last week Jeff Bunker — the villain — 
left without paying his week's board, but the devil 
'11 get him yet I’ll be bound. He alius does get 
such fellows — scamps as would cheat the widow 
and the fatherless. Keeping boarders is getting to 
be a pretty poor business, but poor folks must do 
what they can, and if they don’t like it, lump it. 
Beggars mustn’t be choosers in this world, but 
there’s one comfort — the rich folks can’t take their 
money away with ’em, and it’s as hard for a rich 
man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as for a 
camel — remember, Susan, the big one we saw in the 
travelling circus with a hump on his back like I 
don’t know what — to enter the eye of a needle. It 
alius made me glad to read that on a Sunday after- 
noon when I took up my Bible. Rich folks put on 
so many airs it kind of provokes me. And it alius 
pleased me to know God was no respecter of 
persons, and that He’d told ’em so. It seemed to 
me He meant to take ’em down a peg when He 
said that. Don’t you think He did, Susan ? ” 

‘ ‘ I guess He did, ” was the reply, ‘ ‘ but you know 
more about it than I do, so what’s the use of 
asking } ’’ 

'‘I don’t know as I do — ‘Great is the mystery of 
godliness’ — but if you think so you’re welcome to 
it. It’s not much us poor mortals know anyhow. 
It wasn’t given to us to know any more than we 
do neither. We’re to believe and have faith, not to 
ask questions about things we’re as ignorant of as 
a child unborn.” 

“ Well, what’s all this got to do with Mr. Besse ? ” 


88 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

asked Susan, who was always disposed to be im- 
patient under her mother’s theology, and much less 
given to Biblical research and religious discussion 
than the latter considered good for her soul’s 
welfare. 

“Well, one thing leads to another, you know, 
Susan, and when things go wrong in this world it’s 
a great comfort to look to the other. If we had 
only man to trust to we should be pretty badly off 
I guess ; — man indeed, poor helpless critter, thinks 
he knows ’most everything, and all the while knows 
nothing compared with the Almighty ! Very few 
men as I’ve ever seen humble themselves enough, 
and yet God knows they’ve need to be humble.” 

All this was said while Mrs. Stetson was busy 
getting supper ready for the newcomers, assisted 
by her daughter, and as the sentence last chroni- 
cled fell from her lips she heard an approaching 
footstep, and, looking towards the door, saw Joshua 
Besse. 

“How you startled me ! ” she exclaimed, although 
she was not in the least startled, “I’m getting your 
supper ready, and can t do it any quicker for no- 
body.” 

“I came,” he observed, after a kindly word of 
greeting to Susan, “to tell you both that I be a 
new man, and haven’t been as happy for over five 
years as I be to-day.” 

“Oh, my ! ” 

“And I want to tell you, too, that I didn’t know 
anything about what I was a’going to do when I 
went away, or I’d ’a told you, for you was alius a 
good friend of mine, Mrs. Stetson, and so was you, 
Susan.” 

“Well, I do think it strange you didn’t tell us Mr. 
Besse — ” observed the widow. 

“Wait a bit, I want to tell you a secret, I was 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE. 

the cause of her husband's death by accident, and 
ever since Tve had a weight on my mind, and felt 
awful bad at times, more for her sake than anything 
else. Well, I heard not long since that she'd been 
grieving all the time, and came near dying, and 
hadn't anybody to help her seeing as her folks are 
all dead, and was in great distress. When I heard 
that, says I, ‘ Ibe the cause of it and I'll go on and 
help her — it's my duty to.' So I drew some of my 
money out of the Savings' Bank, and took coach, 
as you know, and went straight through to Shore- 
ham, and found her as poor as poor could be, and 
made her take the money. I felt it was all my 
fault she was where she was without any husband 
to take care of her, and the Holy Spirit seemed to 
tell me to be a husband to the widow and a father 
to the fatherless, though for that matter I'd alius 
loved her, and used to go sparking with her." 

Here Mrs. Stetson drew a deep sigh, and ejacu- 
lated something very like “Oh, dear me ! " in a 
subdued tone of lamentation. 

“So there and then I asked her if she wouldn't 
let me take care of her and her boy for the rest of 
her life, and the Methodist preacher coming up 
soon after, we were married and oh ! Mrs. Stetson, 
I can’t tell you how happy I've been ever since. I 
felt as if I'd been forgiven all my sins, and had be- 
gun a new lifb, and I’ll try all I can to make her 
so happy that she'll forget the past and all that I 
brought on her, though the Lord knows it was 
through no fault of my own. And I want you to 
be kind to her and the boy, for she's a stranger 
here, and needs all the comfort she can get ; and 
he's a smart little fellow and I want you to like 
him for his mother's sake, she's suffered so much. 
She’s a true womaUj and there isn’t one deserves 
better than she does. You'll like her well, I guess, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


90 

when you come to know her, and I want her to 
make up for lost time by having a good time now.” 

“It was very good of you to take her in that 
way, poor thing,” remarked Mrs. Stetson. 

“ Yes, but it was only my duty. I ought to have 
done it before, and Td have had an easier conscience, 
but ‘it's never too late to mend,' and thank God 
that I went to see her and that she was a-will- 
ing to marry me. She deserved a better man for 
that matter, but I'll be as good to her as^ the Lord’ll 
let me.” 

“An accident was it?” said she, inquiringly. 

‘ ‘ Yes, but I’ve no more to say about that. Let by- 
gones be bygones, and the least said the soonest 
mended about old sores. I’ve got over it now, and 
I’ll be as good to her as him that's gone.” 

At this point Hepzy holding Job by the hand, 
was seen peeping in as if in search of the missing 
Joshua. 

“Come in, Hepzy, don't be affeared,” said the 
latter ; “ Mrs. Stetson's busy a-getting some supper 
for us. The regular supper was cleared away afore 
we got here.” 

“I don't know, Mrs. Stetson,” spoke Hepzy, 
“but what I ought to claim to be a relation of your 
husband's, for I was a Stetson, and I had a brother 
who used to live in Providence, but I haven’t seen 
him for more than ten years. He was lost at sea 
while mate of a vessel on a whaling voyage, and 
left a family, but I've never seen them, and wouldn’t 
know where to look for them. What was your hus- 
band’s Christian name ? ” 

“John ! What was your brother’s name?” 

“Was he from Carver, and had he dark hair and 
a full beard ? ” 

“ Yes ! Why, are you from Carver ?” 

“ And did he wear a pair of small brass rings in 
his ears ? ” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


91 


Yes ! Why, did your brother wear ’em ? ” 
“And was he about middle-height, and thickset ? ” 
“ I guess he was. Why, was your brother so? 
Come, do tell I ” 

“And was he lost only three or four years ago ? ” 
“My goodness, yes ! Why don’t you tell us if 
his name was John ? ” 

“And did you ever hear him speak about me ?” 
“What’s your name ? Are you his sister Hepzy ? 
I’ve heard him say he’d a sister o’ that name, the 
only living relation he had.” 

“ I am, I am, and you’re my brother’s widow ! ” 
“So his name was John ? ” 

“Yes, his name was John ! ” and the two women 
embraced each other like old friends, while Susan 
rushed forward to kiss her newly discovered aunt. 

Just then some one raised the latch of the front 
door, and walked straight to the kitchen, but paused 
on the threshold. 

He was a stout, strongly-built man of about forty- 
five years and medium stature, with dark bushy 
hair and a full beard, a weather-beaten face, and 
the general aspect of a sailor. 

Mrs. Stetson uttered a shrill scream, which was 
echoed by her daughter, and with the startling ex- 
clamation. — “My husband!” flew into the arms 
of the stranger, while Susan followed her example, 
saying, “ Father, we thought you were dead!” 
and Joshua’s wife cried out, “ Why, Jack, my dear 
Jack ! do you remember your sister Hepzy ? ” and 
embraced him too. 

The mother and daughter clung sobbing to his 
neck, and it was not for some minutes that either 
of them could utter a word, so great was their 
emotion, their astonishment, and joy. 

“Don’t take on so,” said the returned whaleman 
— whose presence seemed little less than a resur- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


92 

rection — with sympathetic tears coming down his 
bronzed features; “it wasn’t my fault I stayed 
away so long.” 

“Father, tell us w^here you’ve been. We heard 
you were lost years ago,” said Susan. 

“Who’d ever ha’ thought it.?” gasped Mrs. 
Stetson, recovering speech. ‘ ‘ Thank God for this ! ” 

“And how came you to be here, Hepzy .? ” asked 
the restored brother. 

“Ah! Jack, it’s a long story; I’ll tell you by 
and by, but here’s my husband, Joshua Besse ; 
we’re only just married, and got here from Shore- 
ham less than an hour since.” 

“ Father, tell us where you’ve been all this time, 
and why they thought you was lost,” repeated 
Susan. 

“ Who told you.? ” 

“We had a letter from the captain of the ship 
over three years ago, and me and Susan went to 
see him and the crew when the ship came back to 
New Bedford,” answered Mrs. Stetson. 

“I heard it from one of the crew who wrote 
home to Shoreham,” broke in Hepzy. 

“Well, I was lost, leastways all on board 
thought I was, and maybe they don’t know any 
different yet. I was in a boat with three more a 
long way from the ship, and we were harpooning 
a big sperm whale, when he just made a<dive under 
the boat and tossed us all into the air, and we 
dropped sprawling into the water — all red with his 
blood — with the boat broken, and keel uppards, 
and the oars floating off. I think he must have 
swallowed one man as he came down, like Jonah, 
for there was only three of us swimming about 
the boat that I could see. The sea was running 
high, and there was a stiff breeze blowing and a 
good deal of mist in the air, and the spray dashed 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


93 

in our faces and took our breath away. I was the 
only good swimmer among 'em, and I shouted to 
encourage 'em to right the boat, but they couldn't 
hear me it was blowing so hafd. They were 
scared and seemed to lose their strength in no 
time. We couldn't see the ship, and the ship 
couldn't see us, I guess, and there was no help for 
us if we couldn't right the boat. We tried and 
tried, but it was no go. Then the sky grew black, 
and a terrific squall burst on us, and I climbed on 
to the keel of the boat, and held on there like grim 
death. My mates floundered about for a while longer, 
and I tried to help 'em up on to the boat, but they 
hadn’t the strength left to pull themselves up, and one 
by one I lost sight of 'em, and could hear nothing but 
the whistling of the wind and the roaring of the sea. 
I thought my time had come then sure, and prayed to 
the Lord as I'd never prayed before. When the boat 
was on the top of a wave I looked to see if there 
was any sign of the ship, but the sea was so high 
and the air so thick I couldn't see far and I saw 
nothing of her. Then dusk came on, and then it 
grew pitchy dark. It was the blackest night I 
ever saw, but the wind went down gradually and 
it began to rain, and the rain beat down the sea. 
That was an awful night for me, and how I kept 
on the boat, tossed about as I was, I don't know. 
But the rain was a good thing for me, as it gave 
me a drink whenever I wanted it by sucking the 
sleeve of my jacket. At daybreak I looked about 
for the ship, but she was nowhere to be seen, 
and I gave up all hope of being saved and pre- 
pared to die. Without a morsel to eat, and all 
cramped up and wet as I was, I knew I couldn't 
last much longer. Most of the time I lay forward 
along the keel, but once in a while I sat up. I 
was so cold I had almost lost the use of my 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


94 

limbs, but still I kept on the boat, and when it 
stopped raining- and the sun shone out, I was glad 
of the warmth it gave me, and it cheered me up a 
little. The morning wore on, and every minute 
seemed like a month, and albatrosses swooped 
round me like birds of prey, but I couldn’t see a 
sail anywhere. 

“ It was about noon, I guess, when I did see a 
sail. I remember it came upon me all of a sud- 
den, and I w^ondered why I hadn’t seen it before, 
but I’d grown drowsy for want of food and sleep, 
and through holding on so long. It wasn’t very 
far off, and was coming towards me. I hadn’t 
any signal to wave, so I lifted one arm, but it had 
grown so stiff I found it hard work. Well, to 
make a long story short, the ship came close up to 
me and sent a boat to take me off, and I was 
hoisted on board. They tried to put me on my 
feet, but I fell right down, my legs and every part 
of me was so stiff and benumbed. They carried 
me to a bunk in the forecastle and gave me a glass 
of grog, and after a long rest and sleep I was able 
to stand up and tell what had happened to me. 

“ It wasn’t my oWn ship I was aboard of, but a 
New Bedford whaler — a barque — not long out, and 
without any oil. My own ship when I left her 
was nearly filled up, and as this one was empty I 
saw a long voyage before me, for whales were 
scarce, but I was thankful to God for being saved. 
I felt that Satan himself was right for once when 
he answered the Lord and said, ‘ All that a man 
hath will he give for his life.’” 

As a curious incident in connection with this 
familiar Biblical quotation (Job, ii. 4), I may men- 
tion that Judge Roosevelt, of New York, in his 
charge to the jury in the Stephens murder case 
claimed, with the utmost gravity, ‘‘the highest 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


95 

authority, " for saying- what it embodies. He knew 
it was in the Bible, but was unaware that his “ au- 
thority" was the devil himself. 

We cruised about for whale," continued the 
narrator, “for nearly two years after that, and got 
scarcely any, but after that we filled up fast. I 
was made third mate, and had my shares with 
the rest, and yesterday, just three years and a half 
from the day I was taken aboard her, we arrived at 
New Bedford, and here I am at last, thank God, to 
find you just as I left you. Isn’t that so ? " 

“Yes, just as you left us. You didn’t think I’d 
go and marry again, did you, John, even if I did 
feel sure you were dead and gone ? No, John, 
I’ve been Widow Stetson ever since the news came, 
and it almost broke my heart, and I can hardly 
make up my mind that you’re here now. I feel 
like asking myself if I’m not dreaming it all,’’ 
and again she fell sobbing on his breast, an ex- 
ample Susan and Hepzy were quick to follow, and 
with the three women dearest to him in the world 
clinging to and caressing him in their joy he em- 
braced them all, and wept like a child, while 
Joshua and little Job were the sole spectators of 
the moving scene. 

Those who say that pensioners, like annuitants, 
never die, may attribute his preservation to the fact 
that he was a pensioner of the war of 1812. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

One Sunday less than two years after their mar- 
riage and less than one after the advent of a certain 
little stranger who had received the name of 


A MARVELLOl/S COINCIDENCE. 


96 

Joseph, Hephzibah and her husband were seated 
together in a small wooden house of their own in 
that most wooden of all old cities, Providence, for 
buildings of any other material than wood were 
then unknown within its limits, and are still few 
and far between. 

They had left the home of the Stetsons a few 
months previously, for the simple reason that with 
two children to take care of Mrs. Besse preferred 
to keep house, no matter on how small a scale, 
and she argued that it was no more expensive to 
do this than to pay board bills for persons living 
in their humble way. The costly luxury of house- 
keeping, as practised now by the rich and fashion- 
able people of New York, and other great cities, 
was something she could not have comprehended, 
so simple and thrifty were her ways, and so 
scanty the means to which she had been always 
accustomed. 

They had just returned with little Job — now 
nearly eight years old — and the baby, from the 
nearest Methodist church which they regularly 
attended, and they had been talking on the way 
home of the powerful and convincing sermon that 
had been preached by a new minister, by which 
Joshua seemed to be much affected. 

“I’ll tell you what it is, Hepzy,” said he, very 
seriously, after they had both sat down in their little 
front parlor, “I’ve got something on my mind./ 
I’ve had it there a long time, and that preacher 
seemed to know it was there and to be a-preaching 
at me. Hepzy, I can bear to keep it to myself no 
longer, bad as it’ll make you feel to have me tell of 
it. He told us to tell the truth and shame the devil, 
and I’ll do it, bad as I be. I was alius afeared to 
do it afore because I had a guilty conscience, and 
‘conscience,’ he said, ‘ makes cowards of us all,' 


A MARVEZLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


97 

I be very wicked, Hepzy, very, and don’t know as 
I be fit for saving grace. 

His wife intuitively jumped to the conclusion 
that there could be but one thing that had so preyed 
upon his mind, and which he was afraid to confess 
to her, and yet she had felt no suspicion of it before, 
or if she ever had, it had been dissipated before her 
marriage to him by his apparently frank and candid 
talk during that interview in front of the Shore- 
ham poorhouse. But his manner and his words, 
although he had as yet uttered no confession, told 
her that he was about to acknowledge that he had 
murdered her first husband. What else, she asked 
herself, could it be that troubled him so much .? 
The very thought sent the blood to her heart and 
blanched her cheek, and she struggled against the 
conviction that had so suddenly forced itself upon 
her in the hope that it might not be true. She 
waited anxiously for what he was going to say, yet 
dreaded to hear it as men sometimes dread to open 
and read letters which they fear contain bad news. 

He paused at this juncture as if hesitating even 
now to divulge the secret he had so far retained 
within his own breast under the seal of silence. 
Seeing this his wife encouraged him to proceed by 
the interrogatory : 

“Well, Josh, what is it.?'" but she trembled as 
she spoke. 

“You know,” he resumed, “I told you I shot 
poor Zachary by accident. But, Hepzy, it was a 
lie. I shot him a-purpose. Forgive me, won’t 
you, for what I done, though I don’t know as I be 
good enough to ask ! Oh, Hepzy, promise me you 
won’t tell anybody, and that you won’t go off and 
leave me ! I shot him because the devil was in 
me and he made me do it. I was deef to the 
warning voice within me — deef to God’s holy com- 
mandment, — ‘Thou shalt not kill.’” 

7 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


98 

“ Oh ! Josh, Josh, why did you do such an awful 
thing? 1 am sorry you told me,’' she replied in 
anguish, wringing her hands and shedding tears. 

“I shall feel better for having told you, Hepzy, 
come what will. Don’t say you’d rather I hadn’t 
told you. My soul’s salvation depended on my 
making a clean thing of it, and I felt I ought to do 
it even if it brought me to the scalfold, though I 
don’t know as I be fit to die. Oh ! Hepzy, it’s a 
terrible wearing thing to have such a secret as that 

to take care on. I can’t tell you how I suffered 

Don’t take on so, Hepzy, don’t,” and he tried to 
calm her agitation. 

“God help me,” she exclaimed, “to bear this 
double affliction ! ” and she sobbed almost hysteri- 
cally. 

In the midst of her grief little Job, who had been 
playing outside, came in and ran up to her, child- 
like, as was his habit, and, seeing her emotion, 
said : “Mother, what you crying for?” She lifted 
him into her lap and pressed him with nearly con- 
vulsive energy to her breast. The father lived at 
that moment in the child, and she rained her tears 
upon his head. 

For minutes that seemed like hours Joshua Besse 
sat silent looking at the mother and child with an 
expression of unutterable sorrow, waiting for the 
tempest of her grief to subside, but shedding not a 
tear himself, for he was one of those men who 
seldom or never weep, and then only under over- 
whelming emotion, and in this case he had nerved 
himself for the painful task. 

“You know, I guess, why I done it?” he at 
length spoke. “You know why, Hepzy? It was 
because I loved you, and he got you away from 
me. I didn’t mean to do it though till a minute 
afore I did it, and when I’d done it I felt as if I 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


95 

could have shot myself for doing it But it was too 
late to undo it I felt as if God might strike me 
dead for it where I was, and as if I deserved it if He 
did. Then I tried to make myself think it was an 
accident, but I couldn’t It was my conscience 
that wouldn’t let me. I felt though I could pass it 
off as an accident on my fellow creatures if I 
couldn’t deceive myself nor hide the truth from 
God, so I brought him home and faced it 

“ I was dreadful sorry for you that night, Hepzy, 
and I lay wide awake all through it worrying about 
you. I was afeared, too, of being found out, though 
I didn’t think I should be, for I bethought there was 
no one to say it wasn’t an accident when I said it 
was. When I shot him I said to myself, ‘ If so be 
Hepzy will let me take his place. I’ll take as 
good care of her as he did and love her just as much, 
so she’ll be no worse off ’cept for grieving after 
him.’ But the way you treated me, and took on, 
showed me you wouldn’t do that, leastways not 
then, and I felt badly, I can tell you. It made me 
feel a little bit bitter, I guess, too. ‘At any rate,' 
said I, ‘I’ve had my revenge. ’ The old devilish 
feeling I had to get even with him, when I shot 
him, came over me. But it didn’t last long. I 
knowed I was a murderer, and I was so as I couldn’t 
rest nowhere. You couldn’t a-bear to see me, and 
as that was so I wanted to get away, and I went to 
Providence. 

“Then after a while my conscience troubled me, 
so I tried to get religion, but I couldn’t bring myself 
to confess, for I was afeared I should be hung for 
it, feeling I deserved it. I struggled inwardly with 
myself, and at one time I was for confessing and 
a-going to the gallows just as I be, and at another 
I trembled only to think of it. I couldn’t sleep o’ 
nights. Gray hairs camo into my head and my 


too 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


face grew thin and withered like as if I was a-grow- 
ing old afore my time. I felt that the devil was 
after me day and night like a roaring lion. I thought, 
too, how happy we might have been if you hadn’t 
broke with me that time, for I loved you more than 
you thought, I guess. I didn’t stick by you half 
close enough, Hepzy, after I’d been a-going with 
you so long or Zach would never have had you. I 
didn’t know myself how much I did love you till 
after I heard you was a-going to be married, and 
then I felt like killing him I was so mad, though 
Zach and I was always good friends. But I knowed 
it was too late and didn’t say much about it to him 
but kind o’ made light on it as if I didn’t feel hurt a 
bit, though I was riled enough I can tell you.” 

The wife, who had not spoken, continued sob- 
bing up to this time, yet an intent listener, with 
her head bent down, and holding a handkerchief 
to her eyes, but little Job had scampered off again 
heedless of the scene that was transpiring and un- 
conscious of what was being divulged. 

“ After I got to be so troubled in my mind,” 
continued Joshua, “ I tried to find out how you 
was a-getting on, and when I heard you was in 
the poorhouse I felt worse than ever, and said I, 

‘ I’ll go and help her, and see if she won’t marry 
me now. That’s the most I can do to make 
amends for the harm I done her.’ I’d given my 
life to make you as happy as you was afore, 
Hepzy, but I knowed I couldn’t do it. Confessing 
wouldn’t do it ; so I told you nothing about it, but 
lied and said it was an accident over again, I be 
so afeared of what would happen.” 

“Oh! why didn’t you.? why didn’t you tell me 
then if you were ever going to.? ” she asked. “I’m 
so sorry you have told me now, it distresses me 
so. What shall I do?” 


A AIAI^VELLOUS COINCIDENCE. loi 

Do nothing, Hepzy, but forgive me. Say 
nothing about it ever to little Job, or Joey, or any 
other living soul, or I shall be hung, and thatll 
only make things worse for you and for me. I’ve 
made this confession to you, because a man’s old 
woman— his wife I mean— ought to screen him if 
anybody in the world ‘does, and I know you will, 
sinner as I be.” 

He paused anxiously for a reply. 

“God forbid that I should not,” she said, drying 
her eyes with her handkerchief, “for you are my 
husband, and I wouldn’t betray you, but you’ve 
given me a load to carry I shall groan under all 
my life. You’ve made me a sharer in the secret 
of your guilt, and an awful secret it is. I pity 
you, Joshua, from my heart, and wouldn’t add a 
straw to the weight on your conscience, but it’s 
very hard to bear, very hard indeed.” 

“I know it 'is, Hepzy, dreadful hard, and I’m 
sorry for you as well as myself. No one can do 
wrong without hurting somebody else, and you 
are the sufferer because of me. But thank God, 
you forgive me. My heart feels the lighter for 
that.” 

“I know now,” she rejoined, “what those fits of 
low spirits of yours meant, and that lying awake, 
and awaking of a sudden nights, and crying out 
as if there were robbers around. It wasn’t the 
accident as troubled you but your secret. May 
God help us both ! ” 

“Jealousy and love for you, Hepzy,” said 
Joshua, “was at the bottom of it all.” 

“ Don’t say loA^e for me drove you to murder ! ” 
she exclaimed. “It must have been hate, not love, 
that made you so wicked ! Jealousy is a blind, 
unreasoning passion, and it may have done it. But 
never again call that love which would prompt so 


102 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


black and cruel a crime ! Only my love for you, 
Joshua, and my remembrance that you took me 
out of the poorhouse, makes me able to bear up 
under it,” and as she spoke— her words and her 
manner having the emphasis and warmth of a 
righteous indignation — the infant she had placed 
in its crib when she came in vociferously clamored 
for her attention, and she rose and, taking it up in 
her arms, kissed it passionately several times, and 
then, as she pressed it to her bosom, with her tear- 
ful eyes upraised to heaven, solemnly and in broken 
accents, ejaculated: “Yes, for your child’s sake, 
Joshua, I forgive and will never betray you ! My 
children shall never know what you have told me, 
nor another soul ! ” 

“Hepzy,” said he in a voice that faltered with 
emotion — for her words of rebuke and pardon had 
touched his innermost nature — “you’re an angel 
of mercy, and be too good for me. God bless you 
and pity me ! ” 


CHAPTER XV. 

Notwithstanding the dark cloud that hung over 
their lives Hephzibah and her husband continued to 
all outward appearances to live happily togethei^ 
and not a whisper of the crime he had confessed 
escaped her. 

“ My lips are sealed forever. Josh,” were the 
words with which she had assured him that his 
secret would be held inviolate, and great as was 
the anguish it occasioned her, she endured it with 
a calm fortitude which would have done honor to 
the noblest of Christian martyrs. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


103 

worries me dreadfully to hear or to think of 
it/' she said, “and if you don't speak of it again I 
won't. It's between you and your Maker, Joshua, 
and anything I can say or do won't alter it one 
tittle. You've got to give your account, and all 
you can do now is to repent and prepare to meet 
Him who knoweth all secrets — all hearts — and 
who can wash your sins, though they be as scarlet, 
white as snow, or send you down to where there 
will be ‘weeping and wailing and gnashing of 
teeth' forever and ever." 

“May be that's where I'll go," he replied, “and 
if so be as the Lord says so, and I deserve it, I’m 
willing, for I don't know as I wouldn't rather be 
punished for my sins than not, but I'd sooner take 
my punishment in the next world than this, for 
bad as I know I be, I’d trust to divine mercy to let 
me off easier than my fellow creatures would.” 

He preferred, like mankind at large — including 
even the priesthood — the certain joys of this world 
to the uncertain ones of the hereafter, and to defer 
the day of reckoning, notwithstanding his com- 
punctions of conscience, which made him the 
most penitent of men, and he felt that God was 
very merciful to permit him to live when he de- 
served to die. 

He was conscious, too, of its being more noble 
for a man not to shrink from suffering the penalty 
of his wrongdoing, whatever that may be, than for 
him to try to escape it, but in his own case this 
was too severe to be invited, and he felt that self- 
preservation was indeed the first law of nature, 
the more especially as he had now so much to live 
for in his wife and child. 

“I’ll agree," continued Joshua, “never to speak 
again of it, Hepzy, if you won't, and we'll try to 
forget it. Be you willing ? " 


104 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


“ I be,” she answered in his own form of speech, 
into which she sometimes fell intentionally, or 
inadvertently from the effect of bad example, thus 
illustrating the truth of the adage that evil com- 
munications corrupt good manners, for we are all 
more or less imitative. “You will never hear 
another word from my lips about what you’ve 
told me unless you bring it up yourself,” and thus 
a solemn compact of silence on the subject of the 
murder was established between them. 

Hephzibah became more seriously devout than 
before, and so did Joshua, while his mind was 
more at peace than in the old days when he was 
oppressed by the consciousness of a crime known 
only to himself and the All-Seeing. Now that an- 
other shared his secret he was relieved of half its 
burden, and the signs of a troubled conscience 
which she had been accustomed to notice in him 
disappeared. She tried to improve his defective 
education and correct his errors of speech, but he 
showed little aptitude for what he called book 
learning, and she found it as hard to instil knowl- 
edge into him after his hard day’s work as it is 
popularly supposed to be to teach old dogs new 
tricks, although her efforts were never wholly 
fruitless. 

As a good woman who was more nearly con- 
cerned with and affected by his crime than any 
other being on earth had forgiven him, he trusted 
that his Heavenly Father would also forgive him, 
and vowed to do the Master’s will during the re- 
mainder of the time allotted to him. His manner 
towards her, too, became still more kind and gentle 
than previously, and he regarded her with a respect 
amounting to reverence, and an affectionate grati- 
tude that did much to atone for the great wrong he 
had originally done her. He wholly renounced 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


105; 

tobacco and strong drink as a sort of penance for 
the latter, and because he thought it would be 
pleasing to her for him to do so, and he knelt with 
her in prayer every night before retiring to rest. 
He was industrious, and took pleasure in laboring 
hard that she might enjoy the fruits of his labor, 
and he endeavored to assist her in training up little 
Job in the way he should go, and to smooth her 
path and sweeten life for her to the best of his poor 
ability, and if he was not a very satisfactory pupil 
it was not because he lacked the disposition to 
profit by her teaching, as he would have very 
much liked to be as proficient a scholar as herself, 
and he was sensible of the advantages she pos- 
sessed over him in this respect, for the illiterate 
never undervalue education. 

Little Job was a lively and precocious child with 
an immense amount of self-assertion for his age 
and weight, and an active propensity to get into 
mischief of all kinds, which one of the neighbors 
whose flower-pots he had upset and whose ducks 
he was addicted to chasing most unmercifully 
from their favorite puddles, described as “cussed- 
ness,” on his part, meriting that kind of correction 
which Paddy gave the drum, namely, “a good 
bating. ” 

He made more noise probably than any other 
boy of his size in Providence, or all Rhode Island, 
which, however, is not saying a great deal more, 

‘ ‘ Little Rhody ” being territorially so much the Tom 
Thumb of States that there is danger of its being 
some day lost among its neighbors, although, as 
the most valuable goods are generally found in the 
smallest packages, it may be too precious to part 
with, and the sons and daughters of the Diamond 
State — as it might be called — are decidedly of the 
opinion that it is so. Little Job in at least one respect 


)to5 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

seemed to typify Rhode Island itself in Congress, 
where it, too, makes more noise in proportion to 
its size than any other member of the Union, a 
natural result perhaps of its being allowed a larger 
Congressional voice, for wind and muscle will tell. 

“ I don’t know what I shall do with him^,^ he’s 
getting to be so unruly and mischievous,” said 
Hephzibah one day when a poor woman who lived 
next door came to tell her that little Job had been 
chalking the figure of a man on her door for the 
third time, and cutting off the end of her pet kit- 
ten’s tail, the last an offence whose enormity was 
increased by his having done the deed with her 
best pair of scissors, with which he had been ac- 
commodated by her daughter, a child of about 
his own years, who, however, happened to be as 
stupid, docile, and obedient as he was bright, head- 
strong, and unmanageable. 

His mother said this in a long-suffering tone, and 
seemed to regard him somewhat as a hen might 
her duck chicken whose ways were not as hers, but 
she loved him so well that — ignoring the maxim 
“ spare the rod and spoil the child” — she could 
not bear to chastise him, and contented herself with 
a repetition of that mild form of reprimand which 
she was in the habit of administering at intervals 
in homeopathic doses — a kind of moral medicine 
which suited his taste exactly. She felt proud of 
him and wished, as Horace says all affectionate 
mothers should wish, that her offspring might be- 
come wiser and better than herself. 

“My dear, you shouldn’t do so,” were the words 
in which she addressed him, “you know it’s very 
naughty. Good little boys never do such things. 
It’s very cruel to cut off a kitten’s tail, and you 
shouldn’t chalk on doors when your mother tells 
you not to. You must obey her in everything to 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


107 

be a good little boy and go to heaven, where the 
other good little boys go, when you die." 

“Do the good little boys go there ? " he asked. 

“Yes, my love." 

“Then," said he, “ Fd rather stay here with the 
other little boys who don't go there, and play 
with the ducks." 

His mother was amused at the uncommon smart- 
ness of his reply, and stooping, kissed him, saying 
as she did so : “You little mischievous pet ! you’re 
mother’s darling, aren’t you.? But you mustn’t do 
so any more ; you must remember that what is 
play to you may be death to the ducks. And you 
must mind what mother says if you don’t want to 
go to heaven, for the Bible says ‘ Honor thy father 
and mother that thy days may be long in the 
land,’” after which precept he scampered off to 
try the effect of a ride on a passing goat which 
knew him only too well. 

Joshua tried to rule him by moral suasion, but 
never ventured to lay his hand on him, “for," said 
he, when another complaining neighbor suggested 
a little corporal punishment as very much needed 
in the case of little Job, “ he isn’t my child, and 
his mother doesn’t want him licked, and if she 
doesn’t I don’t see as anybody else has the right 
to thrash him, and I be one of those as doesn’t 
think there’s much use in licking young folks. It 
kind of hardens ’em and makes ’em worse, though 
once in a long while I don’t say as it mightn’t do to 
let ’em see who’s master in that way. I be for per- 
suading ’em more," and Joshua Besse took the right 
view of the case, for, however good or bad a man 
or boy may be, flogging, by destroying his self-re- 
spect and kindling resentment, is likely to make 
him worse ; moral suasion is the proper remedy. 

Most parents would have spoiled little Job’s 


{ 


io8 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

relish for life and adventure by frequent floggings, 
and cowed him by angry threatenings of more to 
follow, but he was in loving and tender hands which 
allowed his natural inclinations to develop them- 
selves unrestrained by anything more painful 
than words of command and good scoldings when 
he did wrong. His mother tended him with the 
reverence she instinctively felt to be due to a child, 
thus following one of the precepts of Juvenal, — ■ 
Maxima dehetur puero reDerentia — 

“ His child’s unsullied purity demands 
The deepest reverence at a parent’s hands.” 

That he enjoyed life and appreciated the pleasures 
of home much more in consequence cannot be 
doubted, for the sting of the rod upon the human 
cuticle, besides being demoralizing by involving a 
loss of self-respect, is particularly disagreeable, as 
all small boys at least would be willing to testify, 
and he grew up the happiest boy in Providence, 
with all his faculties in fine healthy action — and the 
terror and amusement of the neighbors who had 
doors to be chalked, goats to be ridden, kittens with 
what he considered superfluously long tails, ducks 
to be chased, and flower-pots to be upset. 

He was not a bad boy by any means after all, 
and he went to the public school, presided over by 
a female teacher, regularly, and was an apt scholar 
for his age. He was almost too young to know 
the full meaning of cruelty, and too thoughtless 
to give the subject a moment's attention, and all 
boys are more or less instinctively cruel. He 
simply abounded in vital force and high animal 
spirits, born of rude health and strength and a 
mercurial temperament, and was perpetually bent 
upon having what is colloquially called a good 
time. 


A marvellous coincidence. 


109 

He was always, when out of doors, laughing, or 
shouting, or otherwise intent upon fun and frolic, 
and hence while the neighbors dreaded his depreda- 
tions they liked to see his handsome face and his 
merry capers, and to talk to him for the sake of hear- 
ing something smartj as they said, in reply ; but at 
home and at school — indoors — he was quiet and or- 
derly, and when at length the family left Providence, 
because of Joshua Besse losing his place there and 
hearing of a good opportunity elsewhere, they were 
sorry that little Job "was no more among them, ex- 
cepting the woman whose kitten and scissors he had 
so misused, and who was also the owner of a goat, 
she rejoiced exceedingly and exclaimed, “Thank 
goodness that little imp is gone ! He'd tax the 
patience of Job. If Td been his mother Td have 
thrashed him within an inch of his life many a 
time, but she’s a poor, quiet, easy-going thing as lets 
him do just as he likes, and he’ll break her heart 
some day, mark my words ! ” 

“ Better a little chiding than a great deal of heart 
break,” would doubtless have only faintly ex- 
pressed her opinion on the subject in view of the 
fact that, “As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” 


CHAPTER XVI. 

One August morning Dan Bryce’s travelling 
circus and menagerie entered the town of Newark, 
and Newark not being a place abounding in light 
amusements, but plenty of hard, prosaic work, 
their arrival— heralded by a van full of trumpeters 
and drummers— created a sensation among the 


no 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


dwellers by the Passaic, and especially the rising 
generation of the place. The small boys were in 
ecstasies over the event, and, for the most part, 
strongly disposed to beg, borrow, or steal, and 
play truant from school, or absent themselves from 
their employment without leave, in order to see 
the show to their hearts’ content, if indeed that 
were possible, for human nature in small boys as 
well as those of older growth is fond of novelty. 
Est natura hominum novitatis avida, as Pliny says. 

Among the swarm of those attracted by the etalage 
— the splendor of the procession — was one in par- 
ticular — apparently nine or ten years old — who 
followed it with delight, and over whom it exercised 
a strange fascination. It was headed — after the 
van load of musicians — by a camel, on which was 
mounted an imitation Egyptian, upon an enormous 
elephant answering to the name of Hannibal, and 
covered with a scarlet cloth embroidered with gold, 
while his trunk seemed to be feeling and scenting 
the air in all directions in search of apples, 
crackers, and gingerbread, which he apparently 
expected the crowd of men, women and children 
accompanying him and the circus generally, along 
the streets, would proffer for his delectation. 

This alone excited the small boy’s admiration, 
but when he saw the funny clown who made 
everybody laugh, and the brilliant train of spangled 
performers on gayly caparisoned steeds, in color 
more diversified than any he had ever seen before 
— cream, chocolate, and yellow, black, white, and 
fantastically mottled, some of them looking as if 
they had been painted by hand — followed by a 
magnificent gilded chariot drawn by eight horses — 
with lovely beings perched like angels thereon, 
and a line of large vans covered with exciting pic- 
tures ofcombats with lions, tigers, leopards, hyenas, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, ni 

and other formidable wild animals in their native 
wilds and jungles, each wagon being supposed to 
contain some of these splendid specimens of the 
animal kingdom drawn from all parts of the world, 
he was intoxicated with pleasure, and suddenly 
felt that he would give anything to be one of the 
boys in tights riding diminutive Shetland ponies 
after the grand chariot, and that his first and great 
ambition was to grow up to be a circus rider. But 
would the circus people take him he asked him- 
self. He would try. He would run away from 
home : he would do anything to become a part 
of that imposing spectacle that fired his childish 
imagination. 

The procession halted in front of a piece of waste 
land at the roadside in the outskirts of the town, 
where circus companies when they visited the 
place usually pitched their tents, a privilege for 
which they paid a small sum to the local authori- 
ties. The aspirant for sawdust honors had fol- 
lowed it there with the crowd of other boys, big 
and little — indeed, nearly all the boys in the place, — 
and he was still eager to see more of it, for appe- 
tite grows by what it feeds on. The circus wagons 
were wheeled into position, the gaudily patched, 
spotted, and whitewashed Grimaldi, the clown, 
dismounted — an exceedingly grotesque figure — 
from his performing mule, much addicted to turn- 
ing round and going the wrong way; the feminine 
divinities on the triumphal car descended to the 
earth ; the equestrians in tights and spangles again 
trod the dust, and two huge tents were opened 
and stakes driven into the ground with a celerity 
which astonished the multitude looking on. 

Meanwhile illustrated bills were distributed telling 
of the wonderful wild animals in the menagerie, 
and the thrilling performances in the ring. The 


112 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


woodcuts of horses galloping at full speed, and 
men in tights, and women in extremely short skirts 
apparently flying after them in mid-air at an equal 
rate of speed, tended, as a matter of course to 
quicken the boy’s ardor, and it only needed the 
roar of a lion in one of the cages to heighten into 
enthusiasm the impression which the cuts of the 
animals referred to produced on his susceptible 
and adventurous nature. 

He had been accustomed to stand on his head, 
turn somersaults, climb trees in pursuit of birds’ 
nests, play leap-frog, and wrestle with boys of his 
own size, and some of larger growth, for he was 
strong, supple, and quick, and graceful as a deer 
in his movements, while, like Lord Nelson, he 
never knew what fear was. He was moreover 
quick-witted, and so ready with his tongue that 
he had often received substantial reminders to 
hold it still, but that ungovernable member would 
still run on and lead him into fresh trouble. 

In addition to possessing these advantages as a 
candidate for the profession he sought to enter, he 
was handsome — well built, with a medium com- 
plexion and cheeks touched with peach-bloom, 
large, piercing, and nearly black eyes, and curly 
brown hair, thick and fine, a deep and broad brow, 
regular teeth, a shapely nose and small hands and 
feet. 

He had no timidity about going up to one of the 
circus men who appeared to be in a position of 
authority, and accosting him thus : 

“Are you the master of the circus?” to which 
the person interrogated, who chanced to be the 
ring-master — and one of the principal proprietors 
of the establishment — replied, “Well, young cus, 
what do you want to know for ? ” 

“Because I want to get a place in the circus. I 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


^3 

can run, jump, climb, and stand on my head and 
walk on my hands like this,” and he gave a prac- 
tical illustration of his skill and agility on the spot, 
from which the ring-master saw that with a little 
training he might be made a valuable member of 
the juvenile part of the company. 

“You’d better stay at hum, you had. What’ll 
your folks say ? They’ll give you what Paddy gave 
the drum if the}^ catch you coming any such game 
as that on them. You’re a likely young fellow 
enough, but I don’t like boys as runs away and 
then has the hue and cry after them. If I took 
you, young man, I’d want to keep you for my 
trouble in teaching you till you’d made your for- 
tune, — not have to give you up to your ma-ma or 
your da-da, and you wouldn’t have to let a blessed 
soul know where you’d stowed yourself. I wouldn’t 
take a boy on no other terms or conditions. D’ye 
hear that? It would have to be ‘ root hog or die ’ 
with you, till your time was up. D’ye see?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Well, put it in your pipe and smoke it, and, if 
you can stomach it, and’ll say nothing to nobody, 
but keep mum, come and see me to-morrow after 
the grand morning performance ; I’m busy now.” 

“And I’m as full of good things as a comic al- 
manac,” jocosely observed the clown, who had 
overheard his concluding words, approaching him. 

“Oh, yes, you are. I know what that means.” 

“What? ” 

“Whiskey cocktails!” and a smile of mock- 
derision played on his features. 

“ ‘Who steals my purse steals trash, but whoso 
filches from me my good name, takes that which 
not enriches him, and leaves me poor indeed,’” 
exclaimed the clown with feigned indignation and 
solemnity. 

8 


XI4 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

Your good name, indeed ! I never knew you 
had one.” 

“Slandered again, by Hercules 1 My reputa- 
tion’s gone. ‘Save me from my friends.’ ‘Give 
a dog a bad name and hang him.’ I’ll be hanged 
if I’ll stand it any longer. I’ll die first. Won’t 
somebody be kind enough to run for a doctor, and 
bring an undertaker along, too .? ” 

After this exchange of pleasantry between the 
ring-master and the clown, whose wordy tilts in 
the ring were a mirth-provoking part of every per- 
formance, the latter turned to the boy. 

‘ ‘ Well, whose chicken, whose pet lamb are you ? 
Does your mother know you’re here.? and what are 
you here for.? and what have you been saying be- 
hind my back.? and do you know the rule of three.? 
and how are you off for soap .? — I mean, how much 
money have you got? and are you a very good 
boy — honest, sober, and of excellent moral prin- 
ciples, with a strong liking for candy and a proper 
aversion for tobacco ? and what have you to say 
for yourself anyhow ? ” 

The boy was much amused, laughed and made 
reply : — 

“Say ! Oh ! I can say lots of things, but I was 
always told that young folks should be seen and 
not heard. One thing I’ll say, though, I can stand 
on my head and turn a somersault as well as you 
can. ” 

“Oh, that’s your little game, is it? Let’s see 
you do it,” and without a moment’s hesitation the 
boy began his performances on the ground, as if 
from his cradle he had acted upon Xenophon’s 
precept that we must accustom the body to obey 
the mind. T?; XvufXT) {nrrjpereiP ediffreov to aufm. “ Crick- 
ety crickety cree, that beats me ! ” ejaculated the 
clown. “You’re just the chap for the show busi- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


I15 

ness. You must take after me. That’s the way I 
used to do it when I was young, and now that Tm 
old I do it all the same. Dash my buttons if Dan 
Bryce wouldn’t make a star of you if he got hold 
of you. Talk of the Mischief and he comes. Here 
he is. Look here, Dan ! See this young cus — 
with a face as mild as if butter wouldn’t melt in his 
mouth — walk on his flippers, and turn a somer- 
sault as if he didn’t like to do anything else ! ” 

The boy repeated his performances, when the 
ring-master, who had been away for a few minutes, 
returned and said, ‘ ‘ Here, what are you doing with 
my boy .? He’s coming to see me to-morrow, and 
I don’t want him to get into bad company any 
sooner.” Then turning to him, he said, “Look 
you here. Hook it, mizzle, vamose the ranche 
till you come again. Do you savvy? Cut your 
stif*k ” 

“Where is it?” 

“ ‘ Where is it,’ eh ? Oh, you’ll do ; I guess you’ll 
do ! You’re a bright un. I’ll give you one, and 
a knife to cut your eye-teeth with ! ” 

“Will you let me into the circus this afternoon ? ” 
asked the boy, as he was about to leave. 

“Well, that’s as cool as an iced lemonade, that 
is. What do you suppose we come here for? 
We’ve dead-heads enough without you, but as you 
want to go into the business, I’ll encourage you 
this time. Here’s a pass for you, and mind this : 
you’re not to speak of it or show it to anybody — 
young, old, or middle-aged — till you present it, like 
a ticket for soup, at the door.” 

The boy, with his mind full of Dan Bryce’s trav- 
elling circus and menagerie, was punctually in 
attendance for the afternoon performance. One 
of the huge tents covered the menagerie — the 
vans containing the animals forming a circle with- 


Ii6 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


in it, while the other was devoted entirely to the 
circus, the seats, or backless benches, which rose 
ampitheatrically round the well sawdusted rin^. 

The wild animals were not numerous, and they 
looked on the whole rather tame, but to him they 
were a revelation. He had never before seen 
alive creatures of which he had heard, and read, 
and seen pictures — the lion, the leopard, the 
zebra, the gnu, the camel, the tiger, the hyena, 
among them — and he looked at them with feelings 
of childish rapture. Even the forlorn and dejected 
American eagle in one of the cages aroused his 
admiration because of this element of novelty, 
although he could have seen an infinitely prouder 
and more stately bird in any barn-yard turkey 
cock, and that the former should have been 
selected as the national bird of America when the 
turkey is one of purely American origin, shows 
that the fathers of the Republic sought to typify 
liberty and not beauty by their choice, but a 
greater parody on liberty than a caged and droop- 
ing eagle could hardly be suggested. 

When the performances began in the circus there 
were about three thousand men, women, and 
children beneath its canvas dome, and to the boy 
it was a splendid sight. Into the ring dashed a 
pair of black horses driven by a man in tights 
standing erect with one foot on each animal, and 
away they went at full speed round and round ; 
then in dashed two more, without riders, and 
joined the others, and he stooped to gather up 
their reins, and drove them still standing all 
abreast; two more soon rushed in, which were 
treated in like manner, and the spectacle of six 
horses driven abreast round the ring by one man 
standing on the backs of two of them was pre- 
sented. When these had made their exit in the 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


I17 

way in which they made their entry, in came a 
woman in the costume of a ballet dancer standing- 
on the back of a milk-white steed that cantered 
round the ring, and as the ring-master cracked 
his whip gradually increased his speed, his rider 
meanwhile jumping at intervals through the large 
paper-covered hoops- held up for her, and alight- 
ing after every flight on the animal’s back. The 
young spectator fell in love with her at once. 
This was followed by an exhibition of ground and 
lofty tumbling by men and boys which far sur- 
passed anything of the kind he had seen before, 
and made him long to become as proficient a 
gymnast as any of the performers he saw. Next 
a young girl appeared driving in a standing posi- 
tion four bare-backed horses which careened round 
the ring at full speed. He immediately became 
enamored of her also, and thought her the most 
beautiful being he had ever seen. 

When the clown rode into the ring on the back 
of a mule which refused to go, and threw his hind 
feet in the air at the same time that he lowered 
his head to the ground, he was, in common with 
the whole audience, moved to laughter, and then 
the prolonged dialogue which took place between 
the clown and the ring-master, in the course of 
which the latter several times cracked his whip in 
the immediate vicinity of the lower extremities of 
the former — tickled him almost to death, to use 
a colloquialism, and when the clown finished up 
with a comic song he wished that he could have 
sung as well. He had to look up very high when 
a man came in on a very long pair of trowsered 
stilts, and reeled about as if the worse for strong 
waters, and, like the clown, had an amusing tilt 
with the ring-master, following which he danced 
a hornpipe and sang a sentimental song. He en- 


Il8 A MARVELLOUS COUSTCIDENCE. 

joyed the Indian war dance that followed, and was 
sorry he could not join in it, and when all the 
horses belonging to the circus were let loose into 
the ring to represent a troop of wild ones — or the 
Corso at Rome during the carnival — and made to 
gallop round at full speed, he fairly shouted with 
delight. 

He said nothing to any one concerning all this, 
or his interview with the circus people, but was 
punctual in presenting himself to the ring-master 
at the appointed time on the following day. 

“Have you said anything to anybody about 
speaking to me since you was here ? asked the 
latter. 

“No, sir.’' 

“ Not to your father, nor your mother, nor your 
uncles, or aunts, or your brothers and sisters, nor 
any of your blood relations, your family physician 
or your confidential advisers." 

“No, nobody." 

“Upon your honor as a gentleman, and a 
scholar, and a rising citizen of this ever so great 
country, eh ? Well, look you here : Mums the 
word. If so be that you’ve no followers, and never 
expect to see your folks again till the day of judg- 
ment or you’ve made your fortune— and I don’t 
want to know anything about them — come to me 
to-morrow morning at eight o’clock sharp, and if 
you’ve anything you want to bring with you bring 
it, and say nothing to nobody. Remember : 
Mum’s the word ! If you’re an orphan so much 
the better. I like orphans, but if you aren’t one it 
can’t be helped, but howsoever it be keep mum. 
You know what that means, don’t you.? — Say 
nothing to nobody. Speech is silver, but silence 
is gold. Your eddication ’ll cost a heap of money, 
and I don’t want to lose it by you. I’d rather 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, ng 

you’d stay away if you don’t come to stay, but if 
you do, mark me, I’ll make a man and a star of 
you.” 

The result was that when the circus and mena- 
gerie moved away from Newark, soon after the 
hour mentioned, the boy was in one of the vans, 
out of sight, and not a soul unconnected with 
the establishment knew of his departure from the 
town. But before that eventful day had been 
succeeded by night he was missed at home, and 
sought with fear and trembling, which soon 
deepened into anguish and despair. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

Fortunately the Swallow s boat drifted towards 
the key, or sand bar, and just before high tide it 
was flung ashore. Mr. Livingston instantly slipped 
from the keel and lifted his wife and daughter to 
the ground, and the two other men having mean- 
while reached the sand also, they took hold of the 
boat with Mr. Livingston, and pulled it further 
away from the water line before another wave 
came to sweep it back again. 

At the suggestion of the latter all knelt in silent 
prayer for a few moments and uttered sincere 
thanksgivings. Then they turned with wistful 
eyes towards the wreck, on the two partially sub- 
merged pieces of which they could plainly see 
several men clinging. They had clambered there 
after being thrown into the surf when the vessel 
broke amidships, and their sole hope of rescue now 
lay in the boat that had so providentially reached 
the key. Yet without water or provisions, even it 


120 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


they succeeded in reaching it, their chance of being 
saved was remote indeed. 

The weather favored them, however, for, besides 
being very mild, the wind gradually went down, 
and at sunset it died away entirely, while the sea 
grew calmer, although a heavy swell rolled in, and 
the surf still thundered angrily against the rocks 
and the sandy key. 

A little later a thin crescent moon shed a streak of 
silver light across the troubled waters from the hori- 
zon to the spot where they stood, and as the wreck 
was directly in its track it illuminated it brilliantly, 
making it stand out in bold relief against the dark 
background of the sky. 

Happily an extra pair of oars, which had belonged 
to one of the boats crushed in, had been secured to 
the inside of the boat before launching, so that 
these were now available for use, although the 
boat itself had received considerable damage by 
being cast ashore. 

Mr. Livingston proposed to his two male com- 
panions to venture out with him in the boat, in 
the endeavor to reach the wreck notwithstanding 
the heavy swell and the roaring surf, but they 
shrank from this as an errand of destruction. 

“But,” said he, “if we remain here without food, 
water or shelter, we shall assuredly perish, and that 
soon. We may be able to save something from the 
wreck, but in any case it is our duty to try to save 
the lives of those still on it.” 

The reasoning was successful, and Mr. Livingston 
begged his wife and Madeline to calmly await his 
return, but they implored him not to leave them, 
the former saying, “ You may never come back, and 
we shall be left here all alone to die.” 

“But we shall die if I don’t go!” he replied. 

“ Then,” rejoined Mrs. Livingston, sadly, “we will 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 121 

go with you, and die, if the Lord wills it, together ! 
and the wife and the young girl were lifted into 
the boat after it had been with great difficulty moved 
down to the water side ; but as the tide was reced- 
ing it was found impracticable to get her afloat 
without fresh efforts which they were then incap- 
able of making. The boat stuck fast in the sand, 
and as a bank of clouds obscured the moon and 
rain began to descend heavily, they resolved to wait 
for the next tide to float the launch. 

Meanwhile they caught the falling rain in the 
hollow of the palms of their hands, and moistened 
their parched lips with the cool and refreshing 
drops, thanking God for even this — a blessing in 
good season. 

All night long the survivors on the key huddled 
in the boat for shelter, while the few left on the 
wreck remained lashed to it, and whenever a wave 
struck them, or the surf boiled up as if threatening 
to engulf them, they clung to it with the energy 
of desperation, weak and famished though they 
were. 

An awful, terrible night was that for all, but in- 
finitely worse for those washed by the sea than for 
those in the boat. 

The long and weary hours of agonizing suspense 
slowly went by, and the first gray light of dawn 
again came, after which the rain ceased, and the 
sun rose brightly above the eastern horizon, shed- 
ding his lustre athwart the sailless sea, which, hav- 
ing been beaten down by the rain and lulled by 
the dying wind, no more ran high, but told of the 
gale that had spent its force, in the heavy swell 
that still prevailed. 

The tide rose and the boat began to float. Mr. 
Livingston took his place in the stern to steer, — for 
he had been accustomed to boating from his boy- 


122 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


'hood, — and the two other men, who had known 
nothing of it prior to their present experiences, be- 
gan to ply the oars as best they could, while Mrs. 
Livingston and her daughter sat like pictures of 
resignation amidships, and so they moved forward 
on old ocean’s undulating breast towards the wreck, 
of which but little was now above water at high 
tide. On that little, however, four figures like those 
of men were still visible. 

Mr. Livingston hailed them in a loud voice as 
the boat drew near, but there was only one feeble 
response, and that he soon perceived came from 
Captain Binnacle, who waved one hand slowly as 
if too exhausted to do more. 

With much difficulty and danger the boat was 
got alongside, and Mr. Livingston leaped onto the 
wreck and helped the captain to unloose his lash- 
ing and get into the launch. For he was so stiff 
he could hardly use his legs or arms. 

‘‘I’m too tough to be easily killed, or I’d have 
gone to Davy Jones’s locker long ago,” said the 
latter, “but I guess you’ll find the other fellows 
dead, and I don’t think I could have stood it much 
longer. They were as much drowned by the salt 
water as starved.” 

To the horror of the living the three other figures 
were found to be those of dead men hanging stiff 
and gaunt in the shrouds of the shattered ship, 
while hungry sea-birds circled above and ravenous 
sharks below. 

“Let us go back, do ! ” implored Mrs. Living- 
ston, addressing her husband, and Madeline echoed 
the supplication by saying, “ Oh ! yes, do, papa ! ” 

“Hold on !” spoke Captain Binnacle. “I’ve 
got a bag of biscuit and a keg of fresh water lashed 
to the mainmast. They’re a little bit under water, 
but I guess you can find ’em.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


123 


The hearts of all who heard were rejoiced, and 
Mr. Livingston promptly volunteered to make the 
search, and after wading, swimming and diving 
about the mainmast he discovered the bag, cut 
it loose, and dragged it to an exposed part of the 
wreck, from which he threw it into the boat, and 
then found and brought to light the keg in the same 
manner. This having been deposited with the bag, 
he followed them into the little craft, and steered 
it safely back to the key. 

Then Captain Binnacle said : Serve out a very 
small ration of biscuit and water. If you eat or 
drink much after your long fast you might as well 
make your will beforehand, for it’s sure death. 
Don’t waste a crumb or a drop, for they’re all we’ve 
got.” 

Mr. Livingston served the ration, saying as he 
did so, “Let us thank God for this ! ” and the long 
fast was broken. 

Nothing more could be saved from the wreck, 
and the only sustenance they had to look forward 
to was the little which through his intrepidity had 
been recovered. It was their only bulwark against 
death, and how short a time it would last ! Unless 
relief came soon it would avail them nothing in 
their struggle for life, and small indeed was the 
chance of any vessel coming near enough to be 
signalled or hailed by them, while the swell was 
far too heavy to make it prudent to put out to sea 
in search of the succor they craved. 

How earnestly and anxiously they longed for the 
sight of land or a sail as they scanned the watery 
horizon ! The two sandbars were a mere mockery 
of the one and the wreck of the other, and hope 
almost died within them as they contemplated their 
desolate situation ; but, as 

“ Hope lives eternal in the human breast,” 


124 


A MARVELLOUS COINCLDENCE, 


they did not utterly despair, and Mr. Living-ston, 
with his iron courage and fortitude, labored not 
only to buoy up the spirits of his wife and daughter, 
but those of the two circus men, which were ex- 
tremely low as may be supposed. 

As for Captain Binnacle, he needed no cheering, 
and said : “Don’t mind me. I’ve been through the 
mill before. I deserve all this, and more too, for 
losing my ship, hang me if I don’t, but I’m much 
obliged to you all, and to you in particular, Mr. 
Livingston, for picking me off the wreck, though 
I was no more worth saving than some of the 
others that have gone. I’ve as many lives as a 
cat ; that’s always the way with your worthless 
cusses. ‘Whom the gods love die young.’ ” 

A sublime and awful spectacle was the ocean to 
these unfortunate beings cast away on this small 
strip of terra firma^ and there was a mighty — a 
tragic — inspiration derived from it which tiiey had 
never before felt, and whose influence was irre- 
sistible. It, and what it might bring to them of 
weal or woe, absorbed all their thoughts, and they 
searched the horizon eagerly with eyes that never 
wearied of the task, for their lives depended on a 
passing ship, and their spirits rose or fell with their 
hopes of seeing one. 

“ Never before, Florence,” said Mr. Livingston, 
“did I appreciate the truth, the beauty and the 
force of all that Byron has written of the sea as I 
do now. 

‘ ‘ ‘ Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll ! 

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain ; 

Man marks the earth with ruin — his control 
Stops with the shore ; — upon the watery plain 
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain 
A shadow of man’s ravage, save his own;^ 

. When, for a moment, like. a drop of rain, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


125 


He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 
Without a grave, unknell’d, uncoffin’d and unknown. 

“ ‘Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty’s form 
Glasses itself in tempests : in all time. 

Calm or convulsed — in breeze, or gale, or storm, 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark-heaving ; — boundless, endless and sublime — 

The image of eternity 

Unchangeable save to thy wild waves’ play — 

Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow — 

Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou roliest now.’ ” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

On the morning of the second day following the 
rescue of Captain Binnacle, a strange discovery was 
made by Mr. Livingston near the western extremity 
of the key, which last was about six hundred feet 
long by from ten to sixty wide, while the other in 
sight was about one-third shorter and narrower. 
It was the discovery of a dead horse which had 
been newly stranded! 

He gazed at it for a few moments in speechless 
surprise, and then ejaculated to himself, “This is 
providential I As the manna was rained down to the 
children of Israel during their forty years in the 
wilderness, so this has been sent to us to prolong 
our lives. As a Frenchman I would eat of it with 
gusto ; as a starving American I will help to de- 
vour it whether I like it or not, for it won’t do to 
look a gift horse in the mouth. But where has it 
come from .? Not, like manna, from the skies, but 
from some other vessel that has been wrecked near 
here — for we had no horse on board — unless in- 
deed it has drifted from the land, and land being so 
far away I can hardly believe that possible. The 


126 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


horse, too, untainted as it is, has evidently not been 
long dead, and the dilated eyes and nostrils and 
distended jaws indicate that it died an unnatural 
death, probably by drowning.” 

He hurried back to the little camp by the boat 
and reported his discovery. 

‘'A horse.?” exclaimed the two circus men and 
the captain, incredulously. 

“Yes, and a large one, too, black without a spot 
of white.” 

“ If it’s one of ours,” said the ringmaster, “the 
vessel we shipped by a week before we left has been 
wrecked, and the whole concern has gone to 
smash. We had thirty-five horses and all the tent 
baggage on board in charge of five of our men and 
a boy, and Dan Bryce himself was with them. If 
they’ve all gone to the bottom it’s a judgment on us 
for our sins.” 

This was the first intimation Mr. Livingston had 
received that the speaker and his companion be- 
longed to a circus troupe. 

All the men, and Mrs. Livingston and Madeline, 
hastened to the spot indicated to gaze upon the 
unexpected spectacle. 

“By the Continental Congress it’s Black Prince ! ” 
exclaimed the ringmaster, as soon as he saw it. 

“True, by Jupiter! Alas! poor Yorick,” added 
the clown. 

“It may have been,” suggested Mr. Livingston, 
“that the vessel has not been wrecked, but that the 
horses had to be thrown overboard to ease her in 
the gale.” 

“ That’s so ! ” said the ringmaster. “But what’s 
a circus without horses .? We are a busted institu- 
tion.” 

For twelve more weary days and nights the ship- 
wrecked party remained on the key, subsisting on 


A marvjellous coincidence. 


127 


the uncooked flesh of the horse and the scanty 
supply of biscuit and water, and meanwhile not a 
sail had been seen, and hardly a vestige of the 
Swallow remained above water. Had it not been 
for the carcass thrown up by the swell, and the 
famine it averted, the survivors of the Swallow would 
ere this have put to sea in the boat, although they 
had neither mast nor sail and only a single pair of 
oars. But as it was, want compelled them to delay 
no longer, and our wants are our strength, urging us 
to put forth our energies, so they prepared to leave, 
for all hope of sighting a vessel where they were had 
been nearly abandoned, and the two circus men had 
become helplessly sick with fever. They might as 
well perish in the open boat out at sea as on the 
barren sandbar. So putting the two sick and half 
delirious men into the bottom of the boat, and as 
much horseflesh — offensive though it had become 
— as the boat could well carry in addition to her 
human freight, and the remainder of the biscuit and 
water, on the morning of the thirteenth day they 
set out on their uncertain voyage towards the island 
of Cuba, Mr. Livingston and Captain Binnacle at 
the oars, and Mrs. Livingston in the stern steering, 
with her daughter sitting near. 

They made first for a part of the other key where 
they had seen what looked like rocks slightly ele- 
vated above the sand, and standing out black aad 
sharp against the blue sky. On reaching the spot 
they were astonished to find the broken hull of a 
vessel entirely under water, the masts having been 
carried away close to the deck. 

All save the sick men — who were unable to move 
— left the boat, which they drew up on shore, and 
walked along the reef, which was strewn with evi- 
dences of the wreck — pieces of spars, canvas, 
cordage and ship’s fittings — but no boat, no car- 


128 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


cass of a horse, no food of any kind, no living 
thing was visible. The scene was one of utter and 
painful ruin and desolation. 

What they did find before they had gone the 
length of the key was a piece of an old sail slightly 
raised and supported by sticks driven into the sand. 
Lifting this and throwing it aside, they were horri- 
fied to behold — stretched side by side on the ground 
— the remains of two emaciated men, dressed in 
ordinary clothes and in a state of decomposition, 
although the latter had made little progress, and also 
the naked, mutilated and still more decomposed, 
remains of a third, the flesh of the legs and arms of 
which had been gnawed in some places to the bone, 
and to all appearances by human teeth. Hun- 
ger, says the proverb, will break through stone 
walls, but here it had impelled its victims to can- 
nibalism. 

Mrs. Livingston and Madeline turned from the 
sickening sight with a shudder, the former exclaim- 
ing, “Horrible! Horrible! I shall faint.” 

Separated only by a piece of wood from this char- 
nel-hut, and covered by another and smaller piece 
of sail cloth, lay, also on the sand, the dead body 
of a woman and a boy apparently ten or eleven 
years old, much emaciated, like the men, but alive, 
for when the covering was removed, admitting the 
fresh air and the bright light of day, and the sound 
of voices reached his ears, he opened his eyes as if 
awaking from a long sleep or stupor, and looked 
round him vacantly as if unable to comprehend his 
surroundings. The woman, who seemed to have 
been dead a considerably shorter time than the men, 
and under middle age, was clad like one who had 
been in moderate circumstances, and she wore no 
jewelry but a plain wedding ring which was not 
disturbed. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


129 


Poor fellow/' said Mr. Livingston to Captain 
Binnacle/' he is living, but so nearly dead that if 
we had been a little later it would have been all 
over with him. He is wonderfully like a boy of 
my own I lost under most distressing circum- 
stances not long ago ; wonderfully like indeed. Let 
us carry him to another spot away from these bodies. 
I wonder who the woman was ! — perhaps his 
mother, the captain’s wife, or a passenger? Do 
you suppose this is the wreck of the vessel the 
circus men said the horses were aboard of? There 
is not a horse to be seen anywhere about here? ” 

“ That is more than I can tell, but I should judge 
these men hadn’t been dead over two or three weeks, 
and that would tally with their account. You see 
the weather has been warm and moist for the sea- 
son, and we are in West India latitudes, so decay 
goes on fast. It may be their brig Cojnmerce or it 
mayn’t be. You can’t tell, for you see I’ve searched 
the pockets of all of them — men, woman, and boy 
— and not a paper or anything else could I find to 
throw the least bit of light on who they were or 
what their vessel was, but the hull under water 
looks as if it might have been a brig.*’ 

After the boy had been carried to the open space 
he seemed to revive a little, and Mr. Livingston 
turned to his wife, and said, “ Florence, we have 
found, beside the dead body of a woman, a little 
fellow the very image of poor Alexander, and he is 
alive. Come and look at him.” 

She hurried to the spot where he had been laid 
as fast as her feeble limbs would permit, and as 
she caught sight of him exclaimed, in an outburst 
of excitement, “It is he ! It is he ! It is my dar- 
ling Aleck, I know,” and notwithstanding her hus- 
band’s efforts to restrain her, she fell upon her knees 
at the boy’s side, and kissed him and embraced him 
passionately over and over again. 


130 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


*‘My dear, dear Florence,” said Mr. Livingston, 

don’t give way to your feelings so. It is bad for 
the poor boy to be subjected to excitement while 
he is in such a low state, and because he resembles 
him it doesn’t follow that he is Aleck. The imagina- 
tion gallops while the judgment only walks. We 
have no reason to suppose that Aleck is alive 
now. ” 

Oh ! don’t say so,” she replied ; “this is Aleck, 
I am sure, and the Lord has sent him back to us in 
this way.” 

Just then Captain Binnacle, who had gone to the 
boat for water, returned with a little in a shell — 
shells having been used as drinking vessels since 
the landing of the keg on the key — and, after 
moistening the boy’s parched lips with it, he induced 
him to swallow the rest, and then gave him a mor- 
sel of biscuit which had been soaked in it, and this 
too he swallowed. 

Mrs. Livingston knelt by his side watching beside 
him with feverish excitement like an anxious mother 
at the bedside of a sick child, and ejaculating with 
painful earnestness : 

“ It is my poor, dear boy ; I know it is ; I know 
it ! ” while Madeline looked wistfully into his face, 
as if striving in its lineaments to recognize her 
brother, and said, “Mamma, if it is Aleck, how 
much he has changed since he went to heaven ! ” 
for there she had been often told he had gone. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Mr. Livingston drew his wife and Madeline away 
from the shipwrecked boy’s side, saying to the for- 
mer as he did so, “Come, my dear; he is not our 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


^31 

Aleck, I am sure. His hair is of a darker shade, 
and his eyes are smaller/' 

“ So, too, you may say he is thinner, because he 
has been nearly starved to death. I feel sure it is 
he. What a dreadful horror it all is." 

My dear, if I had not mentioned the resemblance 
you might not have detected it," rejoined her hus- 
band. “You must remember you are weak after all 
you have passed through, and more susceptible 
to false impressions than if the circumstances sur- 
rounding us were less extraordinary than they are. 
We have every reason to think poor Aleck is no 
more, although his body was never found." 

She sat down on a piece of wood and gave way 
to tears, in which she was joined by Madeline, 
while Mr. Livingston continued his exploration 
of the key, and at the extremity opposite to that at 
which they had reached the boat came upon an- 
other strange sight. It was what at a first glance 
looked like a heap of stones and rocks about two feet 
high, on the top of which some rubbish had been 
piled, but on closer inspection it proved to be a hut 
with pieces of timber and a covering of matting 
placed across the stones. Pulling off this rudely 
constructed roof, there were revealed to him the 
bodies of four men, two of whom were in the garb 
of seamen, including monkey-jackets, and all of 
whom were so far decomposed and blackened as to 
be unrecognizable. 

Three of them lay flat, side by side and close to- 
gether, on some mouldering matting on the ground, 
while the head and shoulders of the other were 
leaning against the stones, with the hands clutch- 
ing one arm of the body nearest ; and the clothes 
of all had rotted to such an extent that they hung 
about them in rags. Their flesh where it had not 
been eaten away clung in dry patches to their faces 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


132 

and other exposed parts, and only a few hairs 
remained on the heads of two of them, while it had 
entirely disappeared from the others, and where 
the eyes had once sparkled with intelligence only 
hollow sockets remained. 

Amazed and saddened by the sight, Mr. Living- 
ston recoiled from it, and summoned Captain Bin- 
nacle to the spot. 

“There must have been another wreck here a 
year or two ago,” said the former, for I have 
made another awful discovery.” 

“You don’t say?” 

“Yes ! ” and he led him in full view of the horrify- 
ing scene, and, pointing his finger, said, “There ! ” 

The captain gazed in silent awe and wonder for 
a few moments, and then .exclaimed, “ By the Lord, 
this beats everything I’ve ever seen. These are 
the remains of an old wreck sure enough. Let us 
see if there are any papers to identify them by,” 
and he began to search the pockets of the clothes 
of the bodies notwithstanding their condition, but 
he found nothing except two clasp knives and a 
few United States gold, silver and copper coins. 

On lifting one of the bodies, which was almost 
as light as that of a skeleton, it broke in pieces, 
and parts of the clothing crumbled at the touch, 
like fabrics that had been charred. 

“We’ll call this Dead Men’s Key,” said the cap- 
tain. “Ah! look there!” and he pointed down- 
ward to the surface of the water close to the reef, 
just below which the forward part of a small ves- 
sel — apparently a schooner — was embedded in the 
sand. 

All efforts to discover her name or the names 
of the dead men were, however, unsuccessful. 
The latter had evidently died of starvation, as no 
traces of food were visible, nor of a boat by which 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 1 33 

they could have escaped. Whence they came and 
whither they were bound none could now tell, but 
hearts in all likelihood sickened and bled over their 
unknown fate — one of the innumerable mysteries 
of the ocean. 

Leaving the spot without further disturbance of 
the remains, Mr. Livingston and the captain re- 
turned to where the famished boy lay, and found 
Mrs. Livingston again at his side and still weeping. 

The lad seemed to have revived a little undei 
the combined influence of the biscuit and wafer 
and the presence of the living, but he seemed un- 
able to move or articulate, for he made no effort to 
do either, but kept his eyes open, occasionally 
looking into the faces before him in a wild and 
wondering way. 

Mr. Livingston said nothing about his new dis- 
co\i^ry to his wife out of a proper regard for her 
nerves, and he requested Captain Binnacle to ob- 
serve similar reticence, which he did. 

^‘Let us leave this horrid place,'’ she entreated, 
‘‘and take him with us, for here we have nothing 
to look forward to but death." 

“ I am glad you feel that way, my dear," replied 
her husband. “Come along!" and he and the 
captain carried the helpless boy to the boat and 
placed him astern of the two prostrate men. Then 
he helped his wife and daughter into it and awaited 
the return of the captain, who had gone for the 
before-mentioned pieces of old sail-cloth, and a 
stout pole lying among the debris of the wreck, for 
the purpose of rigging a sort of jury mast and sail, 
which he and Mr. Livingston succeeded in doing 
with the assistance of the captain’s bowie-knife, 
which had proved very serviceable, especially in 
cutting up the horse. Truly, necessity is the 
mother of invention, and hunger teaches many 
things. MuUa docet fames. 


134 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

When all was ready the latter pushed the boat 
into deep water, and, springing into it himself, 
began to ply his oar in concert with the captain. 
Thus propelled by wind and muscle, it left the key 
behind. 

Mr. Livingston had lost none of his coolness 
or iron courage, and, again quoting Byron, he 
said — 

“ ‘ Once more upon the waters ! yet once more ! 

And the waves bound beneath me as a steed 
That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar 1 
Swift be their guidance, wheresoe’er it lead ! 

Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed. 

And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale, 

Still must I on : for I am as a weed, 

Flung from the rock, on Ocean’s foam, to sail 

Where’er the surge may sweep, the tempest’s breath prevail. ’ ’ ’ 

Mrs. Livingston and Madeline never wearied of 
ministering to the wants and comfort of the boy, 
and their efforts to restore him were attended by 
his gradual improvement, but exhausted nature 
needed rest, and he neither moved nor spoke. He, 
however, swallowed the moistened biscuit and 
the water that were given him from time to time, 
and looked less vacantly than at first into the faces 
of those near him. 

Aleck ! said Mrs. Livingston to him, ‘‘Aleck, 
dear ! ” but he made no response, and she scanned 
him closely with anxious and inquiring eyes. 

Meanwhile the two sick men were watched and 
tended by both Mr. Livingston and the captain, 
who took in the oars after an hour’s rowing, find- 
ing the sail drew the boat at the rate of about five 
knots an hour. They were without a compass, 
but, guided by the sun the captain pointed to Mrs. 
Livingston in the direction he wished her to steer, 
which was south-southwest, and soon after laying 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 135 

aside^ his oar, he took her place at the helm and 
kept it until dusk, requesting Mr. Livingston to pre- 
pare for his night-watch by going to sleep in the 
interval. 

Long before sunset the key had receded to a 
faint speck on the horizon, and ere night not 
a pencilling of land was visible, nothing but a 
waste of waters bounded by the darkening vault of 
heaven. 

To the protection of heaven those on board the 
tiny craft who were conscious of their surround- 
ings resigned themselves, while the wind and the 
sea rose, and the temperature grew painfully cold 
to the weak and unsheltered wanderers. Before 
the following morning there was a gale of wind 
blowing, and the sea ran high. 


CHAPTER XX. 

Nearly seven years and a half had elapsed since 
the disappearance of young Livingston. 

It was a bright frosty December day — a day 
when the sun shone alike on the just and the un- 
just — on Broadway — that great artery of New York, 
which presents an epitome not only of the great 
city itself but of both the New World and the Old, 
for here are heard the footfalls of people of all 
States, nations and conditions. Here rags and 
penury pass to and fro, side by side with wealth 
and the newest fashions, squalor and deformity 
contrasting with elegance and beauty ; tottering 
age with buoyant youth, and health with sickness ; 
modest virtue with painted and brazen vice ; inno- 
cence with forbidding crime, and honor with dis- 
honor ; the nouveaux riches with those of the old 


136 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

regime ; men made rich by a lucky turn of the 
wheel of fortune in Wall Street or elsewhere with 
men bankrupted by an equally sudden turn to their 
disadvantage ; the police van and costermongers' 
carts with the well appointed equipages of the 
elile of society, delighting in the good things of 
the world ; half naked street arabs — the gamins 
that are everywhere — with well-dressed, well-bred 
youths ; grave and sombre sisters of charity, on 
their errands of mercy, with light-hearted gayly 
habited butterflies of fashion, and wealthy and sor- 
did votaries of Mammon with impecunious swells ; 
shabby gentility with flaunting opulence, and faded 
queens of the drawing-room with belles of their 
first season ; polished serpentine gamblers in black 
broadcloth and full of guile, and unaffected guile- 
less Quakers in their plain and homely garb of 
drab, looking so eminently respectable that their 
word would be considered as good as their bond 
by any well-regulated disciple of Lavater, and who 
would regard an oath even on the Bible as some- 
thing to be religiously avoided ; girls working all 
day long on sewing machines and in other employ- 
ments, in a close, unhealthy atmosphere, for two or 
three dollars a week — andto many of whom Hood's 
“Song of the Shirt" would be startlingly appli- 
cable — with prosperous tradesmen growing rich on 
the underpaid labor of women ; these and other 
hard-working, half-starved, poorly clad American 
girls, who would scorn domestic service — in their 
false pride thinking it beneath them — with well- 
housed, well-fed, well-paid Irish servant girls, 
faring as well in the kitchen as their masters and 
mistresses in the parlor and dining-room, and with 
hundreds or thousands of dollars to their credit in 
the savings banks ; saints and righteous men who 
do good by stealth, with scribes and Pharisees, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


137 

and sinners who give to be seen of men ; Sadducees 
and skeptics, with trustful and devout Christians ; 
men and women of culture who have seen better 
days, and who are forced to earn their livelihood 
by precarious and humble means, with opulent and 
purse-proud ignoramuses prone to treat honest 
merit with contempt if associated with poverty ; 
vicious and worldly men and women who laugh at 
innocence and goodness, with those pure in heart, 
unworldly and holding virtue as the precious 
jewel of their lives; dangerous black, or cold- 
hearted hypocrites assuming virtues though they 
have them not, with those whose defects are all 
on the surface, and who have warm hearts hidden 
under repulsive exteriors ; merry, thoughtless chil- 
dren of the well-to-do with rosy cheeks and joyous 
hearts, at home for the holidays, and looking for- 
ward to the delights of Yule-tide, and happily un- 
conscious of the cares and sorrows awaiting them 
in later life, wuth the young and old bowed down 
by sickness or misfortune and utterly wretched ; 
sight-seeing travellers from Europe, with an ample 
bank account to draw upon, including Englishmen 
of sporting tastes, visiting America chiefly to hunt 
buffaloes on the plains, with walking advertise- 
ments consisting of a man sandwiched between 
two boards with a flaming business announcement 
on such in addition to another sign on his head ; 
homeless and dejected foreigners just landed from 
Europe in the hope of bettering their fortunes, with 
showy and swarthy, cigarette-smoking Cubans, 
loud and quick of speech ; jolly rough-looking 
country parsons with old mud on their boots and 
an unmistakably rural and economical air, with 
slick and precise pastors of metropolitan churches 
in fine black raiment and boots immaculate as to 
polish; doctors with a fashionable clientele and 


X 3 ^ A^MAIi VELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

more patients than they cared for at a minimum of 
five dollars a visit, with fellow practitioners unable 
to pay their office rent or keep the wolf from the 
door, although perhaps far more worthy and com- 
petent disciples of Esculapius than some of those 
most successful in gathering a harvest for them- 
selves and — who knows ? — the undertaker ; law- 
yers, profoundly versed in the principles and prac- 
tice of the law, yet having little or no practice, 
with dunderheads, or mean pettifoggers, ignorant of 
all but the merest smattering of the legal profession, 
yet overrun with practice through political affilia- 
tions, family connections or accidental combina- 
tions of circumstances ; men of genius and men 
of brilliant literary talents buried alive as journal- 
ists on the American press, with illiterate mush- 
room millionaires, proud of their wealth beyond 
all other earthly possessions, yet unable to do much 
more than write their own names, and guilty of mur- 
dering good English every time they opened their 
mouths ; literary men fitted to give to American lit- 
erature works the people would not let die, but de- 
terred from writing for want of a publisher, which 
meant, before the year 1891, the want of an inter- 
national copyright law — for what American pub- 
lisher cared for a native work on which he would 
have had to pay copyright when he could get a 
foreign one for nothing? — with publishers thriving 
by the republication of the books of British authors ; 
stock-brokers and stock-speculators whose entire 
fortunes often hang on a single throw of the dice 
of speculation, which may be made between break- 
fast and dinner, and who lead lives of wearing ex- 
citement and anxiety, from which Death too often 
prematurely releases them, with staid, retired mer- 
chants whose investments are all in real estate 
and first-class bonds, and who would shudder at 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


139 

the mere thought of risking all they were worth 
on a single hazardous venture ; married and single 
flirts of both sexes, of reckless tendencies, with 
demure and pure minded Methodists and Presbyte- 
rians — but not all of these by any means — who 
would not go to a theater or the opera, for love or 
money, and many others the chronicle of which 
would be monotonous — all passing up and down 
Broadway — one of the famous thoroughfares of 
the world. 

On the particular day referred to the sidewalks 
w'ere more than usually covered with all kinds of 
people intent on making purchases for holiday 
gifts, and the retail stores, or shops, were more or 
less profuse in their display of goods, especially 
those suitable for presents, and the chief anxiety of 
men and women — the latter largely preponderating 
in number — seemed to be to exchange their money 
for toys and trinkets, watches, jewelry, silver- 
ware, walking-canes, umbrellas, cashmere shawls, 
candies, books, engravings, meerschaum pipes, slip- 
pers and the nick-nacks familiar to the frequenters of 
“ dollar stores."' 

All juvenile America was expecting a visit from 
Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or the morning of 
Christmas Day, and parents and guardians, grand- 
fathers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts, had made 
it their business to see that they should not be dis- 
appointed. Husbands and wives, too, sisters and 
brothers, and men and maidens “engaged" in 
love’s tourney before the goal of matrimony, were 
equally busy buying presents for each other, each 
one keeping what he or she intended to give — or 
the intention to give anything whatever — a dead 
secret from the other until the proper moment for 
divulging it and springing the trap, as it were, and 
generally seeking to deliver the selected gifts in 


140 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

the most mysterious manner that suggested itself. 

Walking down the crowded highway about two 
o’clock in the afternoon on the day in question — it 
was the 22nd of the month in the year 1843— was a 
tall thin, middle-aged woman, plainly but respect- 
ably attired, and who looked as likely to be the 
wife of a master mechanic, or small tradesman, as 
anything else. She had a small boy with her, 
whom she held constantly by the hand, as if fearful 
of losing him in the crowd, for she had the appear- 
ance of being a stranger in the city, making Christ- 
mas purchases, and might have come from Brook- 
lyn, Jersey City, Hoboken, Westchester County, or 
any of the neighboring suburbs, and dwellers iu 
small towns and villages have always an exagger- 
ated idea of the dangers of large cities. 

It is the unexpected that happens. Just after 
passing Bleecker Street she suddenly dashed up to 
a tall, comely, well dressed and genteel-looking 
youth of about seventeen years — with large dark 
eyes, brown hair, curling gracefully, and a long 
straight nose — and accosted him. He was startled 
by her excited manner. 

“Oh! my dear, darling boy, my dear Job, ’’she 
exclaimed, “where have you been all this time. 
Thank God for this ! I have found you at last after 
giving you up so long 1 ” She seemed to have 
struck him dumb. 

Simultaneously she released her hold on the small 
boy, and threw her arms around and kissed the 
newly-discovered one. He was staggered. 

He made no apparent effort to shake her off, but 
submitted to her embrace with graceful resignation. 

“ Who are you .? ” he asked in amazement when 
he found the use of his tongue. 

“ I’m Hephzibah your mother — your poor mother 
that you left at Newark nearly seven years and 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 14 1 

a half ago, and I never knew what had become of 
you, and nearly cried my heart out about you. 
Don’t you remember me ? Don’t you remember 
little Joe here, who was a baby then, and your 
stepfather Joshua Besse ? ” 

“ I don’t ; I forget ! Are you my mother ? Are 
you indeed ? I have often thought of her, but I 
can’t remember anything distinctly. All about her 
is like a dream, but I know I had a mother, and I 
thought she was dead. Yes, I have felt sure she 
was ever since I lost my memory.” His story, like 
hers, seemed too improbable for belief. 

“ Lost your memory ! Bless me, what happened 
to you. Job, to make you do that .? ” she asked. 

“I was wrecked, and became sick and delirious, 
and when I recovered I had forgotten all that went 
before” he answered, ingenuously, and without dis- 
trusting either her sanity or her veracity, for he had 
looked forward to the possibility of discovering his 
parents. 

“ Good gracious, wrecked. When did that hap- 
pen } ” 

“Seven years ago. How did you know me 
after so long a time ? ” he inquired with a look of 
incredulity for the first time. 

“ Know you. Job .? I knew you at a glance, my 
boy, tall as you have grown, and fine as your 
clothes are, you’ve altered less than I expected. 
A mother can never forget her own child. Oh ! 
my boy, my boy, how glad I am ! Where are you 
living, and what do you do.?” and again she 
caressed him, and he treated her tenderly. 

All she had said seemed to awaken no memories 
within him, and he replied in answer to further 
questions. 

“My name is Alexander Livingston. I am the 
adopted son of Peter Livingston of Washington 


142 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


Square. I never knew before what my own name 
was, if not that. Having forgotten it, I was given 
that of his only son who was supposed to have 
been drowned, but Mrs. Livingston thinks I am, or 
at least may be, that very boy, I am so like him." 

She looked at him in amazement, and by this 
time there was a small gathering around them of 
curious onlookers. The meeting was too sensa- 
tional not to attract the attention of passers-by. 

“Job," she asked, “are you sure that you’re not 
bewitched? Your name is Job Fenwick, just as 
mine is Mrs. Hephzibah Besse, and as it used to be, 
before I married again, Mrs. Fenwick. Don’t dis- 
own your poor mother. Job ! ’’ 


CHAPTER XXL 

The gathering of observers on Broadway was 
more embarrassing to the youth who had become 
oblivious of his childhood than to his self-pro- 
claimed mother, for in her great and absorbing joy 
at finding him she was indifferent to her surround- 
ings. The inquisitive group of listeners was noth- 
ing to her. Her unexpected discovery made every- 
thing else seem trifling to her. 

“People are looking at us,’’ he said at length, 
timidly. “ Let us walk on, and Fll show you where 
I live, and you can see my father and mother — I 
mean Mr. and Mrs. Livingston. I don’t know 
whether they’ll like my bringing you or not, be- 
cause Mr. Livingston thought you were dead, too, 
and Mrs. Livingston, as I told you, thinks I am her 
own son, or may be, but you can come and speak 
to them. Where do you live ? ’’ 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


U3 

Meanwhile they had began to walk up Broadway, 
and the gathering dispersed. 

“ Where do I live I live in Newark, where you 
went away from me so suddenly nearly breaking 
my heart, as I told you, not knowing whether you 
had been drowned, or had run away with the 
circus, or what had become of you.” 

“ I don’t remember anything about it,” he replied, 
^‘and the doctors can’t help me to. They say it’s 
a curious case, for, though I have a good memory 
for everything since I got well, I am unable to 
recollect anything of what went before.” 

“That is the most extraordinary thing I ever 
heard of. Don’t you really remember me? ” 

“No. ” 

“Nor Newark, nor running away from me, nor 
hearing of your poor father — Zachary Fenwick — 
being shot, nor of my marrying Joshua Besse and 
going to Providence ? ” 

“ No, nothing. All is a blank ! ” 

^ ‘ Poor fellow ! And you say your mind isn’t 
affected in any other way ? ” 

“Not in the least. I was at the head of my class 
in mathematics at the Grammar School, and I have 
been a year at Columbia College, where the pro- 
fessors consider me an apt student. The doctors 
said my memory might be restored if I could re- 
visit the scenes of my childhood and see some of 
my relatives, or others with whom I was familiar 
before the wreck — that is, if Mr. Livingston is right 
in believing that I am not his own son, — but meet- 
ing you has not, you can see, made any differ- 
ence.” 

“ Dear me ! How strange it is ! ” 

Then she asked him again if he didn’t know his 
little half brother — the boy who was with her, and 
remember the other members of the family at Provi- 


144 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


dence, whom she mentioned, but to all her ques- 
tions he replied in the negative. 

“I wish,” said he, “you could be to me what 
Simonides offered to be to Themistocles — a teacher 
of the art of memory. I would not answer as Plu- 
tarch, in his Parallel Lives, tells us he did in the 
words, ‘Ah, teach me rather the art of forgetting, 
for I often remember what I should not, and cannot 
forget what I would.’ I would be grateful indeed 
to have the memories of my childhood restored. 
I don’t think there is another such case as mine 
on record. What a wonderful contrast my obliv- 
iousness of the long ago presents to the prodigious 
memories we read of in ancient history — that of 
Cyrus, for instance, which Pliny tells us enabled 
him to name every officer and soldier in his armies 
— that of Pontius Latro, who, according to Seneca, 
could repeat verbaiim all the speeches he had heard 
declaimed by the Roman orators — that of Joseph 
Scaliger, which, it is said, enabled him to acquire 
both the Iliad and the Odyssey in twenty-one days, 
and that of Lucius Scipio, who knew every Roman 
citizen by name when that city boasted of more 
than two hundred thousand males capable of bear- 
ing arms. ” 

“How splendidly you have been educated, and 
how well you remember all that ! ” was her reply. 
“ I wish I could restore what you have lost. Mr. 
and Mrs. Livingston must have been very good to 
you ? ” 

“They have indeed. They have been the only 
parents I remember to have known till now. They 
have cared for me as their own, whether I am or 
not, instead of a shipwrecked boy they found when 
themselves shipwrecked. I was nearly dead then, 
they tell me, but I have a very faint recollection 
of being discovered, and fed, and taken away in a 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


H5 

boat by them. They have done everything^ in the 
world they could for me, and so has Madeline, and 
I am grateful, and I love them as they love me. 
They will be very sorry to lose me if I ever go 
away, and I shall be very sorry to part from them. 
You won’t take me away, or do anything to make 
them send me away, will you } ” 

“No, my child,” she replied, with tears in her 
eyes, when she saw how much more he loved his 
benefactors than herself, “I won’t take you away 
as they are so good to you, and rich, too, as they 
must be. Why should I } But they must let me 
come and see you as often as I want to. And 
you’ll be glad to see me, won’t you } ” 

^ ‘ Yes, oh ! yes. I’ll be glad to see you, and learn 
to love you, too, if you are sure you are my mother. 
But how can you be sure that I am when I can’t 
remember anything to confirm your belief, and 
how can I be sure of it either? Was there any 
mark on my person by which you could identify 
me?” 

“ Dear me, how you do talk, not like a boy but 
an old man, and asking me such old-fashioned 
questions, too. Of course I am your mother ; I 
am sure of it as I am that I stand here, and you 
had a flat, brown mole on your right shoulder, and 
you have it there now, I know, though I haven’t 
seen it since you left home. Haven’t you ? ” 

“Yes, I have. Now 1 believe you are my 
mother ! ” and he grasped her disengaged hand, 
while a rejoicing smile played upon his features, 
“Unless,” he added, thoughtfully, after a pause, 
“it is merely a coincidence,” and the after-thought 
subdued his enthusiasm. 

“You are a perfect Thomas in unbelief. Job,’" 
said Hephzibah. 

“ I can’t help it,” he answered. 

lO 


146 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

“Who is Madeline that you speak of? 

“My sister. I mean Mr. Livingston’s daughter. 
She is a little older than myself, one of the love- 
liest and most beautiful girls you ever saw.” 

“Oh ! And you love her? ” 

“Yes, more than I do myself. It would break 
my heart to go away from her, or to have anything 
happen to her.” 

He had indeed loved her tenderly from the time 
of his recovery after the wreck, and amor gignit 
amorem. 

“ Maybe you’ll marry her some day ? ” 

An idea that had before vaguely haunted him, 
but was never before expressed in words, flashed 
clearly upon his mind, and warmed his cheek with 
a blush, as he answered modestly, hoping, indeed, 
that he was not the brother of the girl he idolized : 

“ Yes, if she is not my sister, and I don’t think 
she is any more than Mr. Livingston does, and he 
wishes me to think the same way, and has always 
brought me up to do so, and not as Mrs. Living- 
ston does ; but she has been a good mother to me, 
and I am afraid it will grieve her and make her 
cry when I tell her about you.” 

By this time they had reached the house in Wash- 
ington Square, and Mrs. Besse and her son Joseph 
> — a bright-looking ten-year-old — being duly im- 
pressed by its palatial aspect, as well as by the 
dignified appearance of the fat old man servant, 
with a red face and white hair, who opened the 
door, timidly followed the youth into the hall, and 
took the seats to which he invited them. 

“Is mamma at home?” he inquired, for he 
invariably so spoke of Mrs. Livingston to the ser- 
vants, at her request, and also addressed her in 
the same way, but among his school and college 
companions, and elsewhere out of the house, wheri 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 1 47 

he had occasion to mention her, he had used the 
good old English word mother, since discovering 
that the use of the equivalent was confined to 
children and young ladies. 

The servant answered in the affirmative, saying 
also that Mr. Livingston had just come in, and 
meanwhile casting a curious and suspicious glance 
at the shabby-looking visitors. 

The boy went straight to Mrs. Livingston’s sit- 
ting-room on the second story and found her there 
reading by her writing-desk, while Madeline was 
busy over a piece of embroidery near the cheerful 
open fire, for that modern abomination, the parch- 
ing furnace, was unknown in the house. 

“Mamma,” he said, after kissing her and her 
daughter affectionately, “don’t feel hurt or angry 
with me for telling you there is a person downstairs 
who says she is my mother, and knows I have a 
flat brown mole on my right shoulder. She wants 
to see you ! ” 

She opened her eyes in blank wonder, and the 
book she was reading fell from her hand. 

“Your mother? Impossible, Aleck ! She must 
be an impostor who has heard about you. Who is 
she?” 

He then described his meeting with her, and re- 
lated all she had said, concluding with, “I thought 
I had better tell you first, mamma, so papa knows 
nothing about it yet. Shall I go and tell him?” 

“Oh! Aleck, this is cruel! It cannot be that 
she tells the truth. Ask your jpapa to come to me 
immediately. ” 

“Madeline,” she said, turning to the latter as he 
left the room, “did you ever hear of anything so 
astounding ? I am sure he is your brother— sure of 
it — and that woman must have some design in 
claiming him ! My dear, what do you think of it ? ” 


148 A MAR'r^ELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


"‘Indeed, mamma, I don’t know what to think 
of it. It is very strange, but don’t allow it to dis- 
turb you, mamma ! ” and she rose and, putting her 
arm round her neck, kissed her. 

Before Alexander returned with Mr. Livingston 
he had told him the whole story, and that gentle- 
man was disposed to believe the woman’s story 
true, allowing for the possibility of its being a case 
of mistaken identity, or in law Latin, an error 
personce. 

“Oh! Peter,” she exclaimed, as her husband 
entered the room, “I am convinced that woman 
is practicing a gross deception 1 ” 

“ It is most extraordinary, if true,” he replied. 
“Let us ask her up here and question her. I 
will first examine her, and afterwards you can cross- 
examine. You know, Florence, I studied for the 
Bar after I left college and have been half a lawyer 
ever since ! ” 

To this course she assented, and Mrs. Besse, still 
holding her son Joseph by the hand, was ushered 
into the room, her honest face and respectable ap- 
pearance doing much to modify Mrs. Livingston’s 
previously expressed opinion of her and to pre- 
possess Mr. Livingston in her favor. 

The latter had an instinctive love and perception 
of justice, and no motives of self-interest influenced 
him in judging the merits of a case. He loved 
justice for its own sake, which is something that 
can be said of only a few, for, as Rochefoucault 
says, the love of justice in most men is nothing 
more than the fear of suffering injustice. L amour 
de la justice ?i’est, en la plupart des hommes, que la 
cramte de souffrir I injustice. 

It might also have been said of him, in the words 
of Thucydides, that his sagacity was peculiarly his 
own ; and that, gifted by nature with intuitive skill 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


U9 


he had moreover such promptitude of counsel as 
gave him a decided superiority in advancing all 
that was necessary upon any subject and on the 
spur of the occasion. 

He would have been the last man in the world to 
decide in the present case without hearing both 
sides of the question, for had he done so he would 
most certainly not have been just even though he 
might have arrived at a just decision — a principle 
that is lucidly embodied in one of the precepts of 
Seneca. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Why do you think this young man is your son ? ” 
asked Mr. Livingston, after Mrs. Besse had been in- 
vited to a seat. He was very naturally incredulous. 

“I know him by his looks and his voice, and 
everything about him. It would be strange if a 
mother didn’t know her own child. Even a silly 
hen knows her own chickens, and picks out a 
strange one when it gets among her brood." 

“But mothers have, nevertheless, before now 
been known to mistake other people’s children for 
their own. Cases of mistaken identity are not un- 
common. What else makes you suppose him to be 
your son.? When did you last see your son before 
you met this young man to-day ? ’’ 

“It was on the seventeenth of August, 1836, that 
he went away. I was living then in the same house 
where I am now — at Newark. We had moved 
there from Providence because my husband had 
better work offered him, and I came to New York 
to-day to get him something for Christmas, and see 
my sister, who lives in Mulberry Street, whom I 
haven’t seen but once since she was married over 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


150 

twenty years ago in Massachusetts, where I come 
from. I brought Joey with me to see his aunt. He 
is the only child 1 have beside Job. He is by my 
second marriage, and his father will be expecting 
us home before dark by the train, so I must go 
soon, and I wish Job would come with us. On 
the day he disappeared I didn’t know what to 
make of it, and I had a terribly anxious time,” and 
she went on to describe the circumstances attend- 
ing his disappearance, her hopes and fears, the 
search she made for him, and the heart sickness 
that followed when she found her efforts had been 
all in vain. 

“I had given him up for dead long ago,” she 
continued, “and almost stopped thinking about 
him, and when I came suddenly upon him when I 
was on my way back to the ferry this afternoon it 
almost took my breath away, I was so surprised. 
Oh ! sir, I hope you won’t think I am not his 
mother! God knows I am !” and all present were 
impressed by her evident sincerity. 

“But he remembers nothing about you,” replied 
Mr. Livingston, “and therefore there is nothing to 
confirm your impression that he is your son 1 Be- 
sides, you have not seen your boy for seven years 
and a half nearly, and boys at his age change a 
great deal, so that I don’t think it wouldbe easy for 
you to recognize him ! ” 

“ My husband Joshua Besse — not his father, but 
my second husband — remembers him as well as I 
do, and will tell you who he is, but how could /, his 
mother, be mistaken about him And now, sir, 
that I have told you how I lost him, I would like 
to hear you tell how you found him, and why Mrs. 
Livingston, as he says, thinks he is her own boy ? 
He has told me about being wrecked and losing his 
memory, but I would like to hear more.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


^51 

‘‘If her story is not true, it is at least well in- 
vented/’ remarked Mr. Livingston in an aside to 
his wife, and then turning to the visitor said : 

“ Before going into particulars, Mrs. Besse, allow 
me to ask you one question. It is this : — Did you, 
in the same summer in which you say your son 
mysteriously disappeared, hear of the drowning 
of two boys belonging to Orange, who went down 
the Passaic to Newark bay, in a sail boat one windy 
day .? ” 

“No.” 

“ Did you then, or at any time afterwards, hear 
that a boy named Alexander Livingston had been 
drowned in the manner that I describe.” 

“No, I have no recollection of it.” 

“Do you know that I have a country house at 
Orange, and lost a son by drowning ? ” 

“ No, sir. This is the first I have heard of your 
living there, or having had a child drowned.” 

“ Have you ever heard of me in any way before 
to-day.?” 

“No, sir, never.” 

“You are an honest-looking woman, and I be- 
lieve you.” And after a little more questioning 
and answering, in which his wife took part, Mr. 
Livingston began a review of the facts, by observ- 
ing — “The circumstances of the case are these, 
Mrs. Besse.” 

After he had briefly narrated the particulars of 
the wreck, the discovery of the dead bodies and 
the living boy, and the putting to sea in the open 
boat in the hope of being picked up by a passing 
vessel, or of reaching land, he went on to say : 

“We were overtaken by a gale, and had to keep 
baling water out of the boat all the time to keep her 
afloat. Captain Binnacle and myself were the 
only working hands, for the two circus men lay 


^ 5 2 , VELL 0 US COINCIDENCE, 

sick and helpless, and the boy was being nursed 
by my wife and daughter. The boat was tossed 
by the sea so frightfully that we expected every 
moment to be our last, but we survived, and after 
noon the next day the weather moderated, though 
night came again without our sighting land or 
a sail. So we kept on until the afternoon of our 
fifth day out, when, just as the coast of Cuba began 
to loom in sight, after our scanty supply of biscuit 
and water had become exhausted, a schooner bore 
down upon us and took us on board, and we 
uttered sincere thanksgivings for our deliverance. 

“ Before that time the two sick men and the boy 
had partially recovered, notwithstanding our hard- 
ships and want of food, excepting some putrid 
horsefiesh. One of the circus men — the one who 
had told me he was ringmaster — on first seeing 
the boy after he was well enough to sit up and 
speak, looked at him as if he knew him, and I said, 

‘ Have you seen him before } ' for I thought he 
might be the boy they had spoken of as having 
been with other members of their company on the 
vessel with the horses, and, if so, it would show it 
was her wreck that we had seen. 

“ ‘ I was thinking,’ he said, ‘ he was the youngster 
as joined us at Newark last summer, but he’s so 
altered and hollow, I can’t tell.’ 

“ ‘At Newark, New Jersey.?’ I asked. 

“ ‘Yes,’ he replied. 

“ ‘Why,’ said I, ‘ my country place is at Orange, 
less than a couple of miles from Newark, and that 
was when my own dear boy went boating with 
another one day on the Passaic, and was never seen 
or heard of after, though we dragged and searched 
the river and Newark bay for days and weeks. 
Not that I allowed him to go, for I was in New 
York at the time, but I learned so afterwards. I 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


153 

wonder whether he can be Alexander ? What did 
the boy say his name was, and who was he, do you 
know ? ’ 

“ ‘I don’t know. I told him not to tell me his 
name. I gave him one of my own, choosing In- 
gomar — after “ young Ingomar,” an infant prodigy 
that once travelled with Spaulding’s show. Ask 
him if his name’s Ingomar. If it wakes him up 
he’s the one.’ 

“I called the boy by that name, but I saw it was 
strange to him, and when I asked him if he had 
ever heard it before he said ‘No.’ Then I asked 
the man in what month it was that the boy joined 
the circus at Newark, and he said he didn’t remem- 
ber, but thought it was about the middle of the 
summer. ‘It was on the tenth of June that my 
poor boy was drowned or disappeared.’ I replied, 
and he remarked ; ‘It was later than that when 
he came to us, but your boy might have been laying 
around loose somewhere till then, after he took 
French leave, though I don’t think the boy I mean 
was the son of rich folks. He looked like one of 
the common sort, but he was as bright as a dollar.’ 

“ The other circus man was no more sure than the 
first that the boy in the boat was the Newark one, 
because he didn’t answer to his name, but he 
thought he was. The schooner was bound to New 
Orleans, and there we arrived four days after we 
were rescued. I told my wife all the two men 
had said, and that only confirmed her original im- 
pression that the boy we found on the key was our 
Aleck. ‘At any rate,’ said I, ‘we will not part 
with him, so that, whether he is or not, we will 
have him with us, but we shall know the truth be- 
fore long, for he will be able to tell us who he is, 
and that will put an end to all doubt.’ 

“ But from that day to this he has never been able 


154 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


to remember anything of his previous life, and, 
finding he could not recollect his name, vv^e con- 
tinued to call him 'what Mrs. Livingston had called 
him from the first, by that of my lost son Alexander, 
and as Alexander Livingston he has been known 
ever since, and my wife believes him to be her 
own son. After finding him she regained her 
health, and has not been sick since. But I am 
anticipating. We left the two circus men still sick 
at New Orleans, and came back to New York after 
a month's rest there, during which we recovered 
from the effects of our terrible sufferings, but before 
doing so I gave them my name and address in 
New York, and asked them to call upon me when 
they came North, and to bring with them any other* 
they might meet who had known the boy belonging 
to their troupe, but they have never done so, and I 
have heard nothing more of them. 

“Now you say that your son ran away on the 
seventeenth of August in the same year that my 
son was believed to have been drowned on the 
tenth of June. It is a very remarkable coincidence, 
and it leaves it open to conjecture as to whether — 
supposing this young man to be the boy who 
joined the circus — he is your son or mine, or either, 
but circumstantial evidence would lead us to be- 
lieve he is the one who left his home on or near 
the date on which he attached himself to the 
troupe. What that date was I don't know, for 
neither of the circus men remembered it, but one 
of them thought it was in July and the other about 
the middle of summer. 

“Leaving the boy out of the question, all the 
circus people who knew him, except the two men 
we saved, were probably lost in our own vessel 
and the one the horses were shipped by, as there 
is every reason to suppose that was the one 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


15^ 

wrecked where we found Alexander, so I don’t see 
how we are likely to get any further information 
concerning him. Even the two men I have spoken 
of may be dead. 

“ Such being the state of the case, it is for you to 
produce proof of your son’s identity. Alexander 
tells me you said he had a mole on his right 
shoulder, and he says, he has, although I was not 
aware of it before — were you, Florence.? ” 

For the first time he interrupted his statement of 
the case to put this question to his wife. 

“ No,” she replied, “but I remember that Alex- 
ander when a child had something of the kind on 
one of his shoulders, and I think it was the right. 
It may have grown larger as he has grown older.” 

“There again,” said he, “there is room for 
doubt. I don’t see what there is by which we can 
prove his identity. What may seem at first sight 
to do so may be merely a remarkable coincidence. 
I don’t believe he is my son, yet I would not swear 
he is not ; but Mrs. Livingston felt positive that he 
was our lost boy from the moment she first saw 
him, and when the circus men told us what they 
did about him she considered his identity conclu- 
sively determined, but I never did, although this 
piece of circumstantial evidence strongly favored 
the supposition that she was correct. To me he 
always looked like some other boy who closely 
resembled mine ; but in view of the doubt I resolved 
to treat him in every respect as if he were my own, 
and I mean to do so as long as I live, unless some 
one who can establish a better claim to him appears ; 
and even if it should be proved that the contrary 
of my wife’s belief is really the case, I would still 
regard him with undiminished affection, and he 
would be welcome as now to make his home under 
my roof wherever I might be.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


156 

Alexander, who had stood by the mantel-piece 
listening attentively to every word that fell from 
Mr. Livingston’s lips, at this juncture turned away 
with tears of gratitude in his eyes, seeing which 
Mrs. Livingston rose and threw her arms round 
him, exclaiming as she did so : 

“My dear Aleck, you are my own dear boy, and 
they shall not take you away, and you won't go 
with them, will you.?” 

We are slow, as Ovid says, to believe that which 
if believed would hurt our feelings, and Mrs. 
Livingston was still incredulous. 

“ No, never ! ” replied Alexander. 

“That’s a good boy. I knew you would not ! ” 

He was a good boy, but not so good as to be 
good for nothing. Tanto huon cheval niente. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

Mrs. Besse and her boy Joseph were late in reach- 
ing home after the interview with the Livingstons. 

“What makes you so late, Hepzy.?” asked her 
husband. 

“ Don’t ask me,” she replied ; “it almost takes 
my breath away. I’ve found little Job ! ” 

“ Little Job ! ” he exclaimed, opening his eyes 
very wide. “You have .? Where is he ? 

“Pie’s in York in a great big house, with fine 
Sunday go-to-meeting clothes on, and a gold watch 
and chain, and he’s forgotten all about us,” inter- 
jected Joseph, anticipating his mother’s reply. 

She then told her story, and he listened in amaze- 
ment. 

“ Why didn’t you bring him along ? ” he asked. 

“ Bless you, Joshua, they wouldn’t let him come, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


157 


but you are to go there with me to-morrow to iden- 
tify him. They were not satisfied with my word, 
though I told them he had a flat brown mole on his 
right shoulder, and he said he had, and though I 
knew him as well as I do that I stand here.” 

The result was that Hephzibah persuaded him to 
accompany her to New York on the following 
morning, and, arrayed in their Sunday habiliments, 
they entered the house in Washington Square where 
the wife introduced the husband to Mr. and Mrs. 
Livingston, who had been expecting their arrival. 

Madeline was there, too, but Alexander was 
invisible. 

Joshua recited the story of Job's disappearance 
in detail, and confirmed all the statements of Hephzi- 
bah, asking in conclusion, “ Where is he?” 

Thereupon Mr. Livingston said : “Come this way 
Mr. Besse, your wife can remain here till we return,” 
and followed by his visitor, as well as by Mrs. 
Livingston and his daughter, he went upstairs, 
and entered with them a room in which four tall, 
genteel-looking well-dressed youths, between sixteen 
and eighteen, were amusing themselves in various 
ways. 

“Do you recognize him ? ” Mr. Livingston asked 
as soon as Mr. Besse's eyes met theirs as they 
looked up at the party. 

He looked puzzled for a moment, scratched his 
head as if to sharpen his perceptive faculties, and 
then answered, “ No, I don't, nor any one like 
him.” 

“ Here are some more ! ” said Mr. Livingston, 
passing through the room into an adjoining one 
connected by an open doorway ; and there five 
boys of about the same age and class were grouped 
round a pile of colored engravings which had just 
arrived from England. 


158 .A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE,' 

One of the nine boys was Alexander, and the 
others were college friends and neighbors whom, 
at Mr. Livingston’s request, he had invited to 
luncheon in order that when Mr. Besse came his 
recollection of his stepson might be tested by hav- 
ing to single him out of a group. 

“ We shall then know, Florence,’’ said Mr. 
Livingston, ‘‘whether he recognizes him or not, 
and it will prevent collusion between him and his 
wife, unless indeed there is some conspiracy afoot 
and Aleck has been pointed out to him for a pur- 
pose, but this is improbable.” 

Mr. Besse’s eye immediately rested on one of 
the five boys, and pointing him out with his finger 
said “That’s him ! ” It was Alexander ! 

“ Aleck,” said Mr. Livingston calling him out of 
the room, after closing the door of which he pro- 
pounded the question — “Do you remember ever 
to have seen this person before ? ” alluding to Mr. 
Besse, who stood with the family group in the 
hall. 

“No, sir,” he answered, eying him closely. 

‘ ‘ Job, don’t you remember Joshua Besse ? ” asked 
the latter, offering his hand. 

“No, I have no recollection of ever having heard 
your name before yesterday, or of having seen you 
before the present occasion. But you know’ I lost 
my memory .? ” 

“Memory or no memory,” rejoined Joshua, “I 
guess you’re not Zachary Fenwdck’s boy, like as 
you be to him, and Hepzy’s made a mistake. If you 
don’t know me and her, you hain’t got any of her 
blood in your veins, and you’re not little Job, as I 
used to dandle up and down on my knee. I’ll bet.” 

Alexander followed the party downstairs, and as 
soon us Joshua re-entered the parlor where his 
wife W’as waiting he said in a disappointed tone — ■ 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


159 


*‘Hepzy, he's notyour’n, though at first I thought 
he was, and picked him out of a lot. Little Job 
could never have forgot me like that ! " This natu- 
rally made a strong impression against her. 

As he concluded Hephzibah caught sight of Alex- 
ander bringing up the rear, and, rushing forward, 
embraced him, exclaiming as she did so, “ He is ! 
He is little Job, grown bigger, and nobody else ! 
Aren’t you Job ? ” 

He made no response, but submitted to her fond 
caresses. 

This was too much for Mrs. Livingston, who said, 
with considerable show of excitement, “ Alexander, 
come away ! This is too distressing !_ She is not 
your mother ! ” 

Mr. Livingston looked on with the judicial im- 
partiality of Solomon when, to decide the rival 
claims of the two mothers to the one child, he 
ordered the latter to be halved between them. 

“ I am his mother! ” retorted, Hephzibah with 
more impulse than reason, and with passionate ve- 
hemence. “ I’ll take my oath of it before Heaven 1 
But Mr. Besse smiled sceptically, while his wife 
looked annoyed at his failure to identify Job. She 
was honest in her claim, but even she now began to 
distrust the evidence of her senses and her maternal 
instinct and to think she might be mistaken. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

Late in the year 1836 a trading brig was sailing 
among the Society Islands, and on board her was 
a boy hardly more than ten years old. 

Day by day from her deck he saw, bathed in 
the brilliant sunshine, giant blue and gray and 


l6o A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

purple mountains, broken and rent into fantastic 
peaks, and pierced and gashed by dark and gloomy 
glens and gorges, the peaks rising one above the 
other — nature’s “cloud-capped towers” — till they 
were shrouded by the floating masses of vapor 
that hung in the. clear blue sky above them. 
Bright, beautiful and magnificent were they 
whether when sunrise touched them with its rosy 
fingers, and rich, vivid and inspiring lights flashed 
athwart the prospect, or in the golden shimmer of 
noon, or when dyed with the rainbow hues of 
sunset ; but not less lovely and refreshing to the 
eye, though without their grandeur, were the 
forests, sprinkled with brown native huts made of 
hibiscus poles and palm leaves, at their base, and 
extending to the coral shores, buttressed here and 
there with gray basaltic cliffs and fringed with 
cocoa palms, on old ocean’s briny brink — forests 
where, among stately and spreading ceibas, royal 
palms nodded their feathery fronds in the languid 
breeze of a clime of eternal semi-tropic summer, 
and cocoa-nut, tamarind, bread-fruit, orange and 
pomegranate trees, proffered their bounty all the 
year round, while bananas and plantains, and 
lesser growths, never wearied of lavishing their 
abundance — where bud and blossom and fruit 
were to be seen upon a single tree, and flowers 
never ceased to bloom and shed perfume — where 
the birds were as gay in their plumage as the tints 
of the prospect, and parrots, cockatoos and 
paroquets chattered from dawn till dusky eve 
save in the noontide heat, when even they seemed 
to take a brief siesta and were still. 

Islands were there set in passe partouts of coral 
reefs festooned with flashing, curling surf and 
frames of ocean — ocean that glittered like molten 
gold when the sun shone down upon it in his 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. i6i 

meridian splendor, but which when in shade 
looked brightly blue and green, yellow and purple, 
in streaks in the shallows near the shores, and of 
a deeper blue and purple in the deeps beyond, 
while far away towards the horizon — where it 
kissed the sky — it changed to green, here light and 
yonder dark. Fair indeed to the eye, but treach- 
erous withal near the shores, were its many- 
colored waters, for the coral spread its branches 
in all directions, and, seen from the vessel’s deck, 
it looked like a gorgeous submarine world of 
white and crimson, lilac and purple forests and 
flowers — showing clearly leaf and stem, and bud 
and blossom — of caves, and temples, and preci- 
pices, and chasms, of elaborate filigree, dainty 
necklaces, chaste carvings, exquisite network, and 
delicate embroidery not made with hands — a world 
of mystery that conjured up visions of naiades 
and revived forgotten legends of sea nymphs and 
water sprites, and was fascinating in its marvelous 
beauty — a world peopled by strange looking 
yellow and orange, pink and purple, scarlet and 
emerald reef fish of uncommon shapes, the yellow 
starfish, the gar and black trygon among them, 
some bristling all over hedgehog-like with long 
brown spikes, others wearing a scaly coat of mail 
suggestive of suits of ancient armor, or armor with 
a single spear like a swordfish, or so oddly varie- 
gated and formed, and swimming so peculiarly, 
as to seem like parts of other fishes which had 
been drawn together by mutual attraction. The 
clown and the pantaloon fish were among these, 
gliding languidly or darting quickly, as the case 
might be, in and out of the caves and chasms, and 
over and under the leaves and flowers, and occa- 
sionally cutting characteristic capers in their 
watery arena, and apparently disporting as much 


i 62 a marvellous coincidence, 

in the gladness of their existence as every living 
thing on the island shores. 

Long stretches of ocean, as calm as a mill-pond, 
between these lovely islands, with their white 
beaches of coral sand, met the boy’s delighted 
eyes, with picturesque bays — bordered with palms 
overlooking masses of hibiscus bushes gaudy 
with their blossoms of crimson and gold — neither 
few nor far apart along the coasts inviting the 
passing vessel to explore their waters, some of 
which, perchance, had then never been ploughed 
by the keel of commerce, or aught save the 
islanders’ canoes. 

Wherever the vessel anchored in some gorge of 
the cliffs, or opening in the reef, or among the 
picturesque reef islets covered with palms, he saw 
a swarm of canoes paddled by Kanakas, and 
loaded with red and golden bananas, put off from 
the shore, laughing and singing and clapping their 
hands with delight, their heads often wreathed 
with flowers and their white teeth and black eyes 
flashing in their brown and happy faces, their 
elastic forms bending in unison with the motion 
of their skiffs and the rhythm of their songs, the 
only garb of the men a pah-ree or colored waist- 
cloth and sometimes a white shirt, and of the 
women a single loose garment made of cotton 
or tappa, the native cloth, and of a color to suit the 
taste of the wearer, and shaped like a chemise. 
The men were mostly tall and well built with 
rich brown terra-cotta looking skins, while the 
daughters of Eve — these Hebes of the Pacific — 
were large, buxom and graceful, and crowned with 
luxuriant raven tresses dressed with sprigs of 
snowy reva-reva made from the shoots of young 
cocoa-nut trees, or plaited rah-ta, and anointed 
with fragrant cocoa-nut oil. They would have 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 163 

realized an artist’s conception of aboriginal beauty. 

Others accompanied them swimming in puris 
naturalihus — the women emerging like Phrynes 
from the sea foam — and all were equally inquisi- 
tive, for after gaining the deck, and uttering Ya- 
rana ! ” in their soft mellifluous voices, they 
climbed the rigging, descended into the cabin, and 
poured down the hatchways into the hold to see 
the wonders of the ship, and, when their curio- 
sity was gratified, they ranged themselves in 
lines and sang their native songs in perfect time, 
and at the end of every measure of their sweet 
wild music — ending in a plaintive sighing sough — 
clapped their hands in concert. 

Savage life as thus seen had a strange fascina- 
tion for the boy, and his childish imagination pic- 
tured in every isle a heaven where all these merry 
and careless creatures led lives of perfect freedom 
and bliss in primal innocence in the shade of lovely 
trees, exempt from toil, and fed by the prodigal 
hand of nature with the choicest of her fruits. 
What wonder that he yearned to share their lot, 
and revel in the delights of a paradise so fair ? 

One dark night before the moon had risen to 
brightly illuminate land and sea with its silver 
sheen, and when the brig lay quietly at anchor in 
one of these calm retreats on the island of Ta-ha, 
with a lofty and rocky precipice covered with 
verdure almost overhanging her, and a reef line of 
white breakers that leapt and curled eternally, how- 
ever smooth the ocean, close by on either side 
he saw a number of dug-out canoes gliding in 
silence through the clear shallow water, with a tall 
native standing up and leaning forward in each, a 
flaming torch held aloft, in the left hand, giving a 
ruddy glow to his dark statuesque figure, and a 
raised spear in the right, every muscle of his body 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


164 

in a state of tension, and his feet firmly planted on 
the sides of his canoe, and his eyes steadily fixed 
on the surface of the water. Suddenly one by one, 
at irregular intervals, each struck a fish with light- 
ning-like rapidity, simultaneously lowering his 
torch, and a moment later a fish was dropped wrig- 
gling into his canoe. 

The boy was attracted by the gleaming lights, 
and the spectral aspect of the men standing out in 
bold relief against the black background of sea 
and sky as they were thus engaged in spearing 
fish, and he longed to take part in the sport, so, 
leaning over the vessel’s side, at the gangway, he 
hailed one of them, and heard the cry of welcome — 
“ Ya-rana ! ” — in return. The light from the canoe 
torch fell upon him, and in a few moments after- 
wards he had descended by the rope ladder which 
he threw over for the purpose, and the canoe draw- 
ing near, in response to his motions, he sprang 
into it amid a chorus of ya-rana’s from the four 
men squatted in it, after which it was paddled 
away by them to continue the spearing. 

The boy was not seen to leave the vessel by any 
one on board, nor was he missed till the next 
morning, when his “ bunk ” was found to be empty 
and he no7i esi mventus. 

“Aleck’s a goner !” said the captain when he 
made the discovery. “ He must have fallen over- 
board, or gone down the ladder and fell off, or got 
into a canoe with some Kanakas, for it was hang- 
ing over the side. Anyway, he’s not here, but 
whether he’s given us the slip or been drowned is 
more than I can say.” 

Search was made for him afloat and ashore, but 
it was unavailing, and on the next day the brig 
sailed for a neighboring island. 

“ Such young fellows as him’s always a heap of 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 165 

trouble,” remarked the captain, again alluding to 
him, “ and as soon as they begin to be of any ac- 
count you lose them. When I picked that boy up 
when his boat was upset and his mate was drowned 
outside of Sandy Hook I saved his life, and now 
he’s gone and thrown himself clear away, for if he’s 
not been drowned or gobbled up by the Kanakas 
nobody will ever find him there, and if he has 
been that’s the end of him here. I’m sorry for him, 
and sorry for his folks too. It would have been 
better, I guess, to have put him aboard some home- 
ward bound vessel as he wanted me to, so that he 
could have got home sooner, but that can’t be 
helped now.” 

“ He felt bad, didn’t he, at first, over leaving his 
father and mother and sister.?” remarked the mate. 

“ Yes,” replied the captain, ‘‘and it won’t do to 
let them know anything about him when we go 
back, for they’ll blame me for taking him away 
and losing him. Poor Aleck ! ” 

On sailed the brig past gracefully curving palm- 
clad shores, and sweeping vistas of emerald and 
gold, and teeming happy valleys and ravines, 
piercing hills of vivid verdure, as if revealing the 
secrets of the land, every opening in the splendid 
forest being a feast to the eye, while the ever foam- 
ing and curling breakers threw their bridal veils 
over the reefs that guarded each sea-girt isle, but 
the fate of the missing boy remained a mystery to 
all on board. 

What became of the missing boy .? was asked in 
vain. 


i66 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


CHAPTER XXV. 

On a certain June morning in the year 1844 — 
nearly eight years after Dan Bryce’s travelling 
circus left Newark — on the occasion already de- 
scribed, one bearing the same name made its 
triumphal entry, with a great flourish of trumpets, 
into the town of Peekskill on the Hudson. It was 
accompanied by a menagerie, and escorted by the 
usual crowd of boys and girls, while those of older 
growth gathered at the wayside, and at windows 
and doorways, to see the procession pass. 

The menagerie included the same huge elephant 
— covered with a scarlet cloth embroidered with 
gold — that had filled the youth of Newark with 
wonder and admiration, and his trunk was still 
searching at intervals for toothsome morsels. The 
same camel was there, too, and a zebra had been 
added to the collection, while the clown, mounted 
on a performing mule, exhibited a face remarkable 
for its fresh display of red and white paint, and, 
judging by the laughter he provoked, his jokes and 
his antics were as droll as ever. The sides of the 
vans containing the wild beasts were still adorned 
with highly-colored animal paintings, and the 
gilded chariot was sprinkled with equestriennes in 
ballet dress, while the men of the company in 
tights and spangles bestrode, or drove, their 
several steeds. 

One of the attractions of the establishment was 
a youth who figured in the bill of entertainment 
as Young Ingomar — a name selected for him by 
the management because it was high-sounding and 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE. 


167 

romantic, and likely to enhance the interest of 
both girls and boys in its possessor and his various 
astonishing performances. 

In the procession he was to be seen, dressed in 
tights, riding a cream-colored horse, and his hand- 
some appearance, well developed muscular form, 
and healthy complexion attracted attention, for 
some of the older members of the company of 
both sexes had a jaded look which contrasted with 
the freshness of Young Ingomar, who was con- 
sidered by his confreres to be the best and most 
daring rider attached to the circus as well as the 
most ready-witted and amusing of boys — one in- 
deed of infinite jest, whose tongue was made to 
do good service in the ring in wordy combat with 
the clown and the whip-cracking ring-master. 

At the first performance in Peekskill he made his 
entry into the ring standing on one leg on a bare- 
backed steed at a flying pace, and alternately faced 
the head and the tail of the animal as he circled 
the arena, first standing on one foot and then on 
the other, and finally bounding through a series of 
four paper-covered hoops in succession, alighting 
on his steed after every jump, and doing all this 
so easily that it hardly seemed to involve strenuous 
effort. A second horse ran into the ring, the reins 
of which he stooped to grasp, and then drove them 
together, with a foot on each horse ; a third horse 
followed, which he treated in the same way, and 
drove the three animals at flying speed with as 
much apparent facility as he had done the one, 
always maintaining his standing position. 

Later in the performance he appeared as a gym- 
nast with two men, and two boys younger than 
himself, and the daring manner in which he stood 
on his head on the head of one of the men stand- 
ing below him, with one of the boys poised on 


68 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


his upturned feet, equally displayed his strength, 
nerve, and gymnastic skill. His last and greatest 
feat, however, was in the character of a mounted 
trapper pursued by hostile Indians, also mounted. 
With his horse galloping at full speed, and his yell- 
ing foes, eager for his scalp, almost within reach 
of him, he would stoop and pick up from the 
ground the weapons, or missiles, they had dropped, 
or aimed at him, recover the gun they had wrested 
from him, and alternately turn and fire and crouch 
in his saddle, or swing from side to side so as to 
use his horse as a bulwark against attack, some- 
times hanging like a hammock almost to the earth, 
and clinging to his horse as deftly as a sailor to a 
yard-arm in a heavy gale. One by one as the 
race for life progressed, and the yells grew more 
and more frantic, his pursuers fell beneath the 
shots from his rifle, and after a thrilling hand-to- 
hand and neck and neck combat, almost as excit- 
ing to look at as a real contest, the last of these 
was put hors de combat, and away he bounded — 
out of the ring, victorious over all. His splendid 
horsemanship, surprising suppleness, characteristic 
gestures, and clever acting won for him deserved 
applause. 

Shortly afterwards he reappeared in the ring on 
foot, with a riding-whip in hand, and entered into 
wordy warfare with the ringmaster, and retailed 
more or less Munchausen anecdotes and jokes for 
the amusement of the multitude. 

“ Well, Master Ingomar, you seem kind of gay.?" 
remarked the ringmaster, after the former had in- 
dulged himself in a paroxysm of imitation laughter, 
to which he replied with suddenly affected gravity. 

“ ‘ I am not merry, but I do beguile 

The thing I am by seeming otherwise.* 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 169 

That's from the poet Jonah ! I like him because, 
like myself, he was awfully fond of fish. ‘A 
fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind/ you 
know ! ” 

“Sir, I never heard of such a poet. Where does 
he hang out his shingle } ” 

“Never heard of Jonah that swallowed the 
whale.?” asked Ingomar. “You’re not posted; 
I’m afraid your education has been very much 
neglected.” 

“ Neglected, sir !” said the ringmaster; “ that 
applies to you, not to me. You need posting, or 
you’d know that it was not Jonah that swallowed 
the whale, but the whale that swallowed Jonah ; and 
besides that, Jonah wasn’t a poet. Jonah was a 
whaler, a regular old-fashioned one at that, and 
when he went after a whale he meant business. 
I wish we’d more like him nowadays. In tackling 
this particular whale he was accidentally swal- 
lowed, but he didn’t mind roughing it inside a 
bit.” 

“You can’t come that on me, "rejoined Ingomar. 
“It’s too thin. You may tell it to the marines, 
but the sailors won’t believe it You’re gassing, 
and you think I don’t see it” 

“ I must send for a minister, and have him do 
some praying and take up a collection for you, ” 
observed the ringmaster. 

“ Nothing would suit me better. Spondulics are 
scarce, for I’ve nary a red.” 

“ And besides being a whaler, Jonah was a 
prophet. Master Ingomar,” continued the ring- 
master. 

“ You have me there ; that’s what I was think- 
ing of when I said poet I knew it was something 
that began with a P. But it’s so long since I’ve 
seen a profit on anything, I’d forgotten there was 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


I7<3 

such a word. You said the whale swallowed 
Jonah, do you mean it? 

“Yes, sir, I do/’ 

“ Then,” observed Ingomar, reflectively, '^he 
mayn’t have been a bit fond of fish ; the fish may 
have been fonder of him ; the boot may have 
been on the other leg. Here I’ve all along been 
thinking it was the other way, and-well, well ! 
How did he come out, and what did he think of 
whaling? I suppose when he was spouted out 
he didn’t think it was much of a shower after 
all?” 

“He came out,” replied the ringmaster, “just 
where he went in, and of his subsequent move- 
ments and opinions I have nothing to say.” 

“ He came out even, feeling all hunky-dory, 
eh? Bully for Jonah ! He went in, I calculate, for 
a big thing — the biggest on record, I should say. 
I guess he could dive deeper and come out drier 
than any other man of his size and weight.” 

“ Well, now. Master Ingomar, will you tell us 
how you came to be so fond of fish, like — as you 
erroneously supposed until I undeceived you — the 
prophet Jonah ? ” 

“ Now, you ask me to tell you a secret, but as 
there’s nobody listening I’ll let you into it. One 
afternoon not very long ago, in New York City, 
after the performance was over, the most beautiful 
young girl you ever set eyes on rushed up to me 
and threw her arms round my neck, and said, 
‘Oh, you’re my long lost brother.’ ‘Am I?" said 
I. ‘That suits me exactly,’ and, after she’d kissed 
me, I kissed her back, and folded her in my arms 
like a polar bear. Then she looked up at me, and 
saw a crowd gathering round, and I said, ‘ My 
dear, before the crowd gets any bigger let’s have 
a little private conversation. Who are you, and 


A lyiARVELLOl/S COINCIDENCE, 


171 

what’s your name, and where do you come from, 
and how did I happen to strike you so favorably ? ’ 
Then her eyes began to open wider, and she tried 
to give a little scream, and exclaimed pretty 
abruptly, as I thought, ‘ I don’t believe you’re my 
brother, after all. I know you’re not Let me 
go.’ ‘My dear,’ said I ‘imagination, ever busy, 
deceives us with a thousand illusory appearances, 
but I’ve lost my heart to you, and whether I’m 
your long lost brother or not, I wouldn’t lose sight 
of you for the world. Tell me your name, and 
where you live, so that I can come for you when 
I’m ready, and give me something to remember 
you by.’ ‘I will,’ said she, and she gave me this 
pocket-handkerchief spotted all over with yellow 
gold fish,” and he held a remarkably small speci- 
men of a mouchoir before the audience. “ Said I, 
‘ What’s this for, and what am I to do with it? Put 
the fish in at my front door? ’ ‘ I give you that,’ 

said she, ‘to remember me by. Keep it, and when 
you see it you’ll think of me. ’ ‘ What’s your name ? ’ 
I asked. ‘My name’s Betty,’ she answered. ‘Then 
Betty my darling,’ I said, ‘I’ll always remember 
you, and I’ll come for you when I’m ready if 
you’ll let me, and till then I’ll console myself with 
your keepsake.’ Well, ever since I’ve been a per- 
fect cormorant on fish, and the reason I’m so fond 
of it, you see, is because I’m so fond of her. She 
loves me, I know she does.” 

“Did she tell you so? ” 

“ No, ‘she never told her love,’ but, 

“ ‘ Oh ! they love least who let men know their love.* 

I have the gold fish, and they’re enough for me 
for the present. I’d rather dream on them than 
with a piece of wedding cake under my pillow ! ” 
“ Let up there, Master Ingomar ! That fishy love 
story of yours is all gas, all gammon, all bosh, all 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


172 

my eye and Betty Martin ! It’s too fishy ; it won’t 
work ; it won’t hold water ! ” interrupted the ring- 
master with an aggravatingly decisive laugh. 

‘ ‘ That’s what I call a snicker, ” retorted the other 
in allusion to the latter. “ Do you impeach my 
veracity, sir ? ” 

“Oh! no. I never knew you had any. What’s 
that ” 

“ For further particulars see small bills,” rejoined 
Ingomar. 

The ringmaster cracked his whip, and observed : 
“I don’t see it. It would take a surgical opera- 
tion to make a man understand such a joke as 
that. But I advise you, young man, to mend your 
speech a little, lest it may mar your fortunes.” 

“Just so ! You’re a big fish, and I am a little 
one, and 

“ ‘ Great men may jest with saints, ’tis wit in them I 
But in the less foul profanation. 

That in the captain’s but a choleric word 
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.’ 

But talking of Jonah and the ministers reminds me 
of something else.” 

“What is that. Master Ingomar.? ” 

“Well, ‘only this and nothing more.’ Last 
winter I was down in North Carolina, and one 
Sunday morning, after a good square meal of hog 
and hominy — they all live on hog and hominy 
down there — I saw a darkey preaching in a Method- 
ist meeting-house, and tearing around at one end 
of it as if he was making a stump speech. So I 
went in, and the first thing I heard was this : 
‘When God made de fust man. He set him out in 
de sun agin de side of a house to dry.’ 

“ ‘ Who made de house ? ’ shouted — in a tone of 
terribly anxious inquiry — a darkey in the congre- 
gation. . 

“ ‘What’s dat?’ asked the minister, boiling up. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


173 

* Turn dat man out of de meetin' ! Such questions 
as dat’d upset all de theology dat ever was. Such 
folks want to know too much. Where is dat man ? 
Turn him out.’ ” 

“ ‘There’s a nigger in the woodpile somewhere,’ 
said I, ‘ and there will be a muss in this sanctuary,’ 
so I cleared out. That ‘ cullud ’ preacher — that 
particular specimen of God’s image carved in 
ebony-— had a way of answering questions, stop- 
ping discussion, and settling things generally very 
like a good many white ministers we know of.” 

“Stop, now! Nothing disrespectful about min- 
isters, Master Ingomar,” interrupted the ring- 
master. “I’m sorry I can’t ask you to stay any 
longer.” ^ ^ 

“Well, I guess I’ll trayel ; I’ll go and leaye you 
to your own reflections.” 

“ My own reflections, sir? ” 

“Yes— in the looking-glass! Talking about 
going reminds me of a story. I was in a country 
store out in Ohio, once upon a time, not very long 
ago, and I saw one of the prettiest girls you ever 
set eyes on looking at a music box that had just 
been wound up. I looked at it too — I mean at 
her — till it stopped, and said : 

“ ‘ The man that hath no music in himself, 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils ; 

The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 

And his affections dark as Erebus. ’ 

She looked at me hard, and remarked, ‘La, how 
you do talk ! ’ But she didn’t want it to stop by 
a good deal, and tried to start it over again. She 
couldn’t do it, though. It was no go. ‘ Oh, pshaw,’ 
said she, ‘ it won’t go for me.’ 

“ ‘Won’t it ? ’ says I, ‘ that’s too bad. I wish I 
was a music box. I’d go for you.’ 

“ ^ Would you ? ’ said she. ‘ Then you may go,’ 


174 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


said I, ‘I’m not a music box/ and I 
vamoosed." 

“She’ll be after you yet," observed the ring- 
master. “Remember 

“ ‘ There is no fury like a woman scorned ! 

O tiger’s heart wrapped in a woman’s hide 1 ’ 

So look out. " 

Ingomar was in the act of retreating before a 
crack of the ringmaster’s whip after uttering a pun- 
gent witticism at his expense — which occasioned a 
roar of laughter — when a middle-aged woman of 
respectable appearance, with a sad, worn face, but 
flashing eyes, who had been acting in a very rest- 
less and excited manner in her seat, left it and 
made her way down one of the passages to the 
edge of the ring, and cried out in a voice almost 
choked with emotion, and in the midst of what 
newspaper reporters describe (in a parenthesis) as 
great sensation, while all eyes were turned upon 
her : “ Mv child ! My child ! My long lost boy, 

come here ! " 


CHAPTER XXVL 

When Young Ingomar was addressed in the pa- 
thetic and startling manner described at the end of 
the last chapter, the audience seemed stupefied, and 
for a moment there was breathless silence, while 
necks were craned forward and all eyes were di- 
rected towards the woman who had produced this 
strange sensation, the like of which had never been 
known in Dan Bryce’s circus, or elsewhere within 
the personal knowledge of the performers. 

“ My boy I My boy I My long lost boy I " re- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


17$ 

peated the woman, with tears in her eyes, as Ingo- 
mar approached her. 

Some of the great concourse of people laughed 
as they craned forward or stood up on the seats to 
get a better view, and wondered whether the scene 
had been contrived by the circus company for sen- 
sational effect — whether, in other words, it was a 
part of the unpublished programme, or as one 
skeptical looker-on observed, “a put-up job,'’ a 
veritable romance in real life, or a case of mistaken 
identity. That she was a stranger in the place was 
evident from the whispered inquiry that ran round 
the circus, “Who is she?" All eyes were an in- 
stant later equally intent upon watching young 
Ingomar as he advanced towards the woman who 
had thrown such a bombshell into the camp, for 
by his actions it was inferred that the truth would 
be known or the mystery be solved, and he was 
no sooner within her reach than she kissed and 
embraced him with almost frantic ardor. The ex- 
citement of the audience rose apace, and whisper- 
ings, cheers and cries filled the air. All were anx- 
ious to know if the touching scene they witnessed 
was real, and if so, to learn all the circumstances 
of the case, while many of the mothers in the au- 
dience wept. There was a rush of men, women 
and children towards the spot where the two were 
standing, the woman now leaning her head on the 
young circus rider s shoulder, apparently unable to 
speak, and sobbing audibly, so overcome was she 
by her feelings. All now saw and felt that the 
scene was indeed real, painfully so. Nevertheless 
a hundred questions from as many different mouths 
were fired at Young Ingomar by people anxious to 
know if she was really his mother, but he remained 
mute. The ringmaster soon came up, however, 
and said, “What's all this about?" 


176 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

The woman, with a sudden effort to control her- 
self, looked up at him. 

Don’t take him away ! ” said she. “I lost him 
nearly eight years ago, and I haven’t seen him 
since till now. I thought he’d been drowned in 
the Passaic. Thank God I’ve found him at last ! ” 
Yes, Hephizbah had discovered her long lost 
Job. 

Where did you lose him ? ” 

“At Newark ; that is where I live. I’m only on 
a visit to an aunt of my husband’s here — Mrs. 
Tyler, and I never was here before. I dreamt 
I should find him here, so I came. It was like a 
message from the Lord ! ” 

“Are you his mother really? You’re not the 
lady that was wrecked with us. ” 

“I am his mother. He remembers me well 
enough.” 

“ Is that so, Ingomar ? ” asked the ringmaster. 
“Yes, she’s my mother, and I treated her very 
badly, for I ran away from home to join the circus, 
and never said a word about where I was going 
or what I was going to do. Mother, forgive me, 
won’t you ? I’m very sorry now, and I meant to 
go home soon.” 

“Yes, darling, I forgive you, but why didn’t you 
spare me all I’ve suffered ? — Oh ! why didn’t you ? 
You knew it would break my heart,” and again she 
gave way to emotion which left her speechless. 

At this juncture the ringmaster, and Young In- 
gomar assisted her into the ring and led her into 
the quarters of the troupe to avoid the crowd that 
beset her, while the vast audience screamed and 
yelled and cheered and waved hats and handker- 
chiefs in a manner which can best be described by 
saying that it beggared description. 

The enthusiastic young runaw^ay of Newark had 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


177 

indeed bloomed into the Young Ingomar of the 
circus bills, beyond which he had grown up as 
nameless as the witches in Macbeth — and the long 
bereaved mother had found her missing boy. But 
in finding him she discovered how undutiful he had 
been, how heartless, how ungrateful, and it would 
perhaps have occasioned her less sorrow to ascer- 
tain that he had been drowned at the time of his 
disappearance than it did to meet him now, and to 
feel and know that he loved the circus better than 
he loved her, and to remember that during the 
eight long years he had been away from her he 
sent her no sign to show that he existed. The 
heedless boys affections had been dwarfed and lost 
in his ambition and thirst for adventure, and with 
no more sense of responsibility to return than a 
young robin has when it leaves the nest, he left his 
home to lead an adventurous career, divesting 
himself of every home tie, and willing to drift alone 
on the sea of life. And yet that boy was dearly 
beloved and tenderly cared for, and when he went 
away he left behind him a void which had never 
been filled. 

When the touching scene was over, and mother 
and son had retired from view, the clown en- 
tered the ring, and with a serio-comic air, jocosely 
remarked — “ Whafs the world coming to, I wonder.? 
What next.? I’ve seen a horse fly, a plank walk, a 
bank run, a watch spring, the biggest kind of a 
tree leave where it was growing, and what’s more 
I’ve seen a cat fish, a stone fence, and a tree box, 
but I never before saw anything like this, and now 
I expect to see the Pacific slope, and a rope walk. 
Oh! my mother ! Is she 'here? If she is, won’t 
she please come forward and claim me .? ” 

This elicited both laughter and hisses from the 
audience, many of whom were in too melting a 

12 


178 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

mood after what had transpired to relish such 
buffoonery, and there were loud cries for Ingomar, 
who, however, having performed his part, merely 
showed himself for a moment and bowed his ac- 
knowledgments. 

A little later mother and son, the latter in plain 
clothes, left the tents, but being recognized a crowd 
soon followed and surrounded them, and, the news 
penetrating the circus, nearly the whole audience 
poured out, although the performance had not 
quite concluded, which left the two the observed of a 
very large number of observers. Ingomar was 
not at all embarrassed by this, being accus- 
tomed to crowds, but it was otherwise with his 
mother ; so to scatter the multitude, he said : 
“Ladies, gentlemen, and small boys, as this show 
seems to draw well, and you enjoy looking at us so 
much, I propose to take up a twenty-five cent col- 
lection all around," and he began to hand round 
the hat. 

The effect upon the adult portion of the assembly 
was instantaneous. There was a general disper- 
sion, and in a few minutes the way was clear, and 
Ingomar and his mother entering a wagon drove 
to the house where she was visiting. 

“Thank God," she repeated over and over again, 
“ I have found you at last ! " 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

As the mother of Young Ingomar uttered the 
words last chronicled, to her son, they were joined 
by the ringmaster, who had left the circus tent 
for the purpose as soon as the performance was 
over. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


179 

“This is the strangest thing I ever knew,” said 
he. “I hadn't time to talk about it on the saw- 
dust, so I’ve come to do it now. You remember, 
Ingomar, my telling you about our finding, that 
time we were wrecked, a young fellow looking so 
like you we at first thought it was you, only he 
was so sick and hollow we couldn’t tell for sure, 
and a lady and gentleman — at least the lady — • 
saying he was their son, because they’d lost one 
close by where you came to us at Newark, and 
about the same time } ” 

“Yes. ” 

“Well, on account of the dead horse that had 
been washed ashore, we thought you were the 
only one saved of all that went with the horses, 
and when they took you away with them — Living- 
ston, the name was — I and Billy Buttons, the 
clown, never expected to see you any more, and 
we supposed, too, that we had attended Dan 
Bryce’s funeral, on the key where you and the 
dead bodies and the hull of the vessel were, but 
lo ! and behold me, when we got back to Boston, 
who should we meet but Dan Bryce himself, and 
you along with him. ‘Well,’ said I, ‘this beats 
everything. Where did you come from ? I 
thought you had all gone down with the horses, 
except Ingomar.’ And then I told the story of 
our wreck on the one key, and what we saw on 
the other. ‘Ingomar,’ said I, ‘must have a 
double, for we saved a boy the exact image of 
him, all but his starved look, and here he is 
again ! ’” 

“ I remember your telling us, and how I laughed, 
and Dan Bryce opened his eyes wide,” remarked 
Ingomar. 

The ring-master resumed his narrative. 

“ ‘You may well have thought me and all were 


i8o A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

lost, Orlando,’ said Dan to me. ‘Only I and 
the boy escaped, with the first-mate and three of 
the crew. We were lucky, for it was a small boat, 
and they wouldn’t take any more on board. The 
brig was driven onto the reef in a gale, after she had 
been dismasted, and she sank right away, drown- 
ing all the horses, and leaving those who hadn’t 
been swept off her to climb the rigging. But the 
weather moderated the next day, and we cut loose 
the only boat there was left, though it was a few 
inches under water, and in that we went ashore, 
a woman and her boy — passengers — with us, I 
forget their names, and 1 guess that was the boy 
you thought might be Ingomar. They were about 
the same age and size, and looked almost as like 
each other as two peas. We hadn’t saved a mor- 
sel of food, so we saw it would be sure death to 
remain on the reef. ‘ ‘ I’ll give a thousand dollars, ” 
said I,’ — I’m telling what Dan said to the mate, 
“to be taken out to sea in the boat, on the chance 
of being picked up by a passing ship,” and the mate 
agreed, and got three men to join him, and I and 
the boy got in after them, and we rowed off. The 
others on shore expected to get in, too, but the 
mate shouted that he’d come back for them, but 
he never did. We were picked up the next morn- 
ing, nearly dead through hunger and thirst, by a 
barque bound for Baltimore. We tried to get her 
captain to go to the reef to save the others, but 
another gale came on, and he wouldn’t do it.’ 
That’s what Dan Bryce told me, and said I to him, 
‘You were saved by a miracle, Dan, and so were 
we.’ ” 

“Yes,” observed Young Ingomar, “and there 
were only four of us saved out of twenty-nine on 
the two vessels. I remember how hard Dan 
worked to get a new company together, with new 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. iSi 

horses, and a new tent and fixings, and how, be- 
fore the next summer, we started again with the 
circus and menagerie in tip-top style/' 

“Well, what I think so strange," resumed the 
ringmaster, “is that the mother of your double 
should have found him just where I was, when 
nobody expected it, and that now your mother 
should have found you in pretty much the same 
way, and that you should both have run away 
from your mothers beforehand, or been drowned, 
or something of that sort — that both mothers should 
have had lost boys. Dash my buttons if it isn’t 
romantic ! ’’ 

Young Ingomar’s mother had listened earnestly 
to all that had been said, and when the ringmaster 
had finished, she said to her son : 

“Job, it is wonderful, as he says, but what is 
more wonderful, I, too, met that very boy he has 
been speaking of, when I was one day with Joey 
in New York, and I mistook him for you." 

“You did?" exclaimed the veritable little Job 
of old. “When? I remember him. He was 
travelling with his mother, and the captain of the 
vessel was her brother." 

“I met him last December," replied Hephzibah, 
“ and was as sure he was you. Job, as I ever was 
of anything else, but he couldn’t remember me. 
He said he had been wrecked, and knew nothing 
of what happened before, but he took me to his 
home, and I saw Mr. and Mrs. Livingston, and 
she had always believed he was her own child 
that she had lost. I took Joshua, your stepfather, 
to see him, and at first he was as sure as I was 
that he was you, but when he heard him talk, and 
found he didn’t remember him, he thought it 
couldn’t be so. I called to see him five or six 
times after that, and Mrs. Livingston all the while 


i 82 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


kept thinking she was his mother and that I wasn't, 
and I was just as sure he was my little Job, though 
he had grown to be nearly as big as you are now. 
Job ; but the last time I saw him, more than six 
weeks ago, he looked so different that I began to 
have my doubts, and said I to Joshua, ‘ I don't 
know but what you are right after all, much as he 
looks like him.' 

“Well, a week ago yesterday. Job, I dreamt that 
I saw you riding horses in a circus, and that Alex- 
ander Livingston, as he was named, was not my 
lost boy, as I had supposed. That dream made 
me feel badly. Then, three nights ago, I had an- 
other dream, and it was all about you and Peekskill, 
and you were still in the circus. I thought of all 
Mr. Livingston had told me about the two circus 
men and the boy belonging to their troupe who 
had become attached to it at Newark, and my 
dream told me that the boy I had mistaken for 
you was not that one. It seemed all mixed up 
and mysterious, but I said to Joshua the next 
morning after I had told him my dream, ‘You've 
been wanting me to go to Peekskill to see your 
aunt for a long time, and I’ll go to-morrow, 
come what will, for something tells me to go there,’ 
and I came, and as soon as I saw there was a 
circus to arrive the next day, and that Young In- 
gomar — the name Mr. Livingston said the circus 
man gave the boy — was mentioned in the bills, I 
felt that I was on the eve of a discovery, that the 
Lord had sent me for some good purpose, and, 
sure enough. He had ! ” 

“I'm the man as gave him that name, and 
told Mr. Livingston about him," said the ring- 
master. 

“And so Mr. Besse and Joey are alive and 
well?” remarked the long-lost, newly-found. Job. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 183 

“Yes/’ replied Hephzipah, “and they won’t 
know what to make of me, finding’ you over again 
in this way. Joshua will think it’s like the shepherd 
crying ‘Wolf’ in the fable. I cried ‘ wolf’ when 
there was none, and now he’ll hardly believe me 
that I’ve found you. I feel quite badly about being 
so deceived ; though he looked the very picture of 
you as you were when you went off, allowing 
for growth, but putting both of you side by side- 
now I couldn’t mistake you, strong as the resem- 
blance is between you. I don’t know what he 
and Mr. and Mrs. Livingston will think of me. 
They’ll fancy I’m crazy, I’m afraid. You’ll have 
to come with me. Job, and tell about it.” 

“All right, mother; anything to please you; 
but as for Mr. Besse’s not believing it, I guess 
you’ll find he will, at least after he’s seen me. But 
it was queer you should have mistaken that young 
fellow for me, though we were about of a size. 
And how are uncle Jack Stetson, and Mrs. Stetson, 
and Susan ? Are they all at Providence still ?” 

“Yes, they’re all there, and they’ll be right glad 
to see you. How well you remember them ! ” 

They had been standing in view of the two tents 
a short distance up the road, and just then the 
ringmaster said: “Here comes Dan Bryce, and 
Billy Buttons along with him ! ” and in a few 
moments they were joined by those worthies, who, 
after hearing the experiences of Mrs. Besse, re- 
peated the story of the wrecks substantially as it 
had been already given. 


1 84 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Job accompanied his mother home the next day, 
and was at once recognized by Joshua Besse and 
the neighbors who had known him, before he 
levanted, as the real object of Hephzibah’s long 
search. 

“He’s the original Jacobs, and no mistake!” 
said Joshua, grasping him by the hand, and the 
recognition was complete on both sides. 

“There’s no Alexander Livingston about you. 
Job 1” he added, addressing him. “That was the 
queerest thing I ever heard tell on.” 

Job frankly acknowledged his great wrong, and 
the injustice he had done to his mother, and told 
his experiences at great length, llicluding those 
connected with the wreck of the Commerce. The 
latter he naturally ranked among the most perilous 
of his adventures, although he had experienced 
many narrow escapes from death by the wild beasts 
in the menagerie, and in the course of his travels 
about the country with the circus, it having passed 
through nearly every state in the Union since its 
reconstruction after the wreck. 

“It must have distressed you very much, 
mother, to have had me go off in the way I did,” 
observed Job, reverting to the subject of his disap- 
pearance from Newark, “and I can never forgive 
myself for making you feel so badly, but it can’t be 
helped now.” 

“Yes, indeed, it nearly drove me crazy. Job,” 
replied Hephzibah ; for, as Lycurgus says, all 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 185 - 

women are naturally fond of their children — 
0u<ret et<rt ^iKotckpoi iradai ai nvvaiKts — do what they may. 
“I went all over the town audio all the police 
stations looking- for you, leaving Joe, who was 
about two years old then, with a neighbor, and I 
walked up and down the bank of the Passaic river 
thinking you might have been drowned, and I got 
Mr. Graham at the hotel you worked at to send out 
a man to look for you. When Josh came home from 
his work I got him to go out with me without his 
supper to look for you, and we walked, inquiring 
everywhere, till it was dark. Then we came home, 
and after supper went out again, and asked all the 
people who knew you if they’d seen anything of 
you. Then I said to Josh, ‘ Do you think he 
could have gone off with the circus ? ’ and he said 
he didn’t think so as neither of us had heard you 
say a word about it, but if you had you’d soon 
come back, for they wouldn’t keep you. But I 
wasn’t satisfied, so I asked Josh to find out where 
the circus had gone to and go after it, and he did 
in a top wagon early the next morning after I had 
sat up all night with candles burning in the 
windows, and the door open. He didn’t get back 
till afternoon, and, though he found the circus, he 
heard nothing of you, and the circus people said 
they had seen no such boy. All that day I walked 
along the river and over the town, asking almost 
everybody I met if they’d seen you, but not a word 
of comfort could I get, and my eyes were red and 
swollen with crying so much, and I was worn out 
with walking and anxiety and want of food and 
sleep, for I hadn’t closed my eyes nor eaten a mor- 
sel since I had missed you. Oh ! Job, I felt dread- 
fully. I can’t tell you now how badly I did feel, 
nor can I ever, for no words could do it. Oh ! it 
wrung my heart to lose you, Job ! It was like 


i86 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


taking away a part of myself, and I felt as if I 
should never get over it, and never see you again 
in this world. 

^ ‘ I knelt down and prayed to God that He would 
bring you back to me, and if it was not His will 
that you should return to me that He would give 
me strength to bear my affliction, and a spirit 
seemed to answer and comfort me, but sleepless 
nights and weary days passed after that, Job, and 
still I heard nothing of you. I said to myself, 

‘ He must have been drowned, and gone out with 
the tide,' but I didn't give up hope entirely, for I 
was all the time listening for a voice or a footstep 
at the door, and looking out of the window and up 
and down the street, not expecting to see you, but 
thinking I might. At last, after more than a week 
of watching and waiting in vain, praying to the 
Lord ceaselessly with all my heart and all my 
soul, I became utterly exhausted, and fell into a 
dead faint on the kitchen floor. Josh carried me 
to bed, and I lay there raving with brain fever for 
nearly a fortnight, and all the time crying out 
‘Job! Job!' sometimes in and sometimes out of 
my mind. Josh never expected to see me well and 
in my right senses again, and I didn't seem to care 
whether I lived or died. 

“When I got better I was so weak I couldn't 
stand, but the Lord had left me resigned, and in 
this way He gave me strength to bear my cross. 
I gave you up as lost, and, as months and years 
went by, I became more and more sure that you 
must have fallen into the river in some way and 
been drowned, although your body had never been 
found, for if you had been alive, I argued, and so 
did Josh, that I should have heard of you. I 
marked a place in the old burying-ground, and 
called it your grave. Job, and used to go there — . 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 187 

taking little Joe with me — nearly every Sunday, 
and pray over it, and whenever I had a flower I 
laid it there, and many a time I have cried on that 
spot as if you had been newly taken away from 
me. I never thought then. Job, I should see you 
again except in another world, and I believe we 
shall all meet and know each other there ! 

“Long before I had those dreams I meant to visit 
Josh’s old aunt, Mrs. Tyler, at Peekskill. The 
dreams decided me to go right away, and when I 
got there and saw the walls and fences posted with 
big placards about a circus that was to be there the 
next day, I remembered the one I saw pass through 
Newark just before you disappeared, though I didn’t 
go to see the performances, and everything I had 
known of it came back to me as freshly as if it had 
just happened, and I made up my mind to say 
nothing to anybody, but go and see it as soon as 
it came. Something seemed to tell me I ought to 
go — that that was what I was there for — I don’t 
know what. It was a kind of presentiment I had. 
It must have been the Lord that put it into my head 
to dream what I did, and, knowing that I was de- 
ceived about the other boy, He must have caused 
me to go to Peekskill — a place I had never been in 
before— just when I did, and, except for dreaming 
so, I wouldn’t have gone at all perhaps, though 
Joshua urged me to, because he said his aunt would 
be so pleased, and I had been promising to go so 
long. 

“It was Providence and nothing else that led me 
to find you as I did. Job. I went to the circus all 
alone, not even telling Mrs. Tyler where I was 
going, and never shall I forget how I felt when I 
saw you come in, and go round and round on those 
horses. ‘ My dream is realized, ’ said I. It seemed 
as if I could have jumped right out of my skin to 


l88 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

get at you, but I didn’t know what to do.^ I was 
almost fainting with excitement, and I didn’t like 
to ‘holler’ to you because I knew it would create 
an excitement, so I waited and waited, and several 
times I was going to speak, but checked myself ; 
but at last, after all that long talk of yours with 
that man with the whip, and just as I saw you 
were going away, I made myself heard. 1 could 
keep silent no longer.” 

“Then you knew me from the first?” said Job. 

“Yes, the moment I saw you come in ; but I 
could hardly believe my own senses for awhile, 
and looked at you in blank wonder, and then I was 
so agitated I could hardly keep my seat. I don’t 
know what the people near me thought, fori acted 
almost like a crazy woman, and looked like one, 
too, I guess, but, thank God, I was rewarded, and 
I felt repaid for all I had suffered.” 

On the following morning Job accompanied his 
mother at her request to the house of Mr. Living- 
ston at Orange, she having ascertained that the 
family had just arrived there. 

Mrs. Livingston, on hearing her name announced, 
ejaculated, “Oh! dear — that troublesome woman 
again 1 ” 

She and Mr. Livingston, Madeline, and Alex- 
ander were together in the breakfast-room when 
Mrs. Besse and Job were ushered into their presence. 

“ I have come,” said Mrs. Besse, “ to say that I 
was mistaken. Master Alexander is not my son 
as I thought. I found Job the day before yester- 
day, and I’ve brought him with me to show you,” 
and she proceeded to tell the story of his discovery. 

The two youths meanwhile looked at each other 
with wondering and critical eyes from opposite 
sides of the room, evidently noting their own 
points of resemblance. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


189 

^‘Then he is my own dear boy ! I knew he 
was/’ exclaimed Mrs. Livingston, alluding to Alex- 
ander, as Mrs. Besse concluded her narrative. “I 
feel more sure of it now than ever before I ” 

‘‘I remember you,” said Job to Alexander, “if 
you’re the boy who was travelling with his mother 
on the brig Commerce when she was wrecked, and 
I think you are.” 

“I can’t say,” was the reply, “I have lost all 
recollection of the wreck and what went before it.” 

“ What were the names of the boy and his 
mother of whom you speak ? ” asked Mr. Living- 
ston. 

Job replied that he had forgotten them. 

The resemblance between the two youths was 
not nearly so close as might be supposed from the 
fact of Mrs. Besse having thought she recognized 
Job in Alexander, but in a passport they would 
haye been described nearly alike, their height ex- 
cepted, Job being about an inch taller than the 
other. Both had thick curling dark brown hair, 
long and straight noses, broad and deep foreheads, 
large dark eyes and full lips, but Alexander was 
narrower across the shoulders as well as more 
fleshy than Job, and the palm of masculine beauty 
belonged to the latter with his fine sinewy, elastic 
and graceful form, and well developed muscular 
system, his ruddy cheeks, and his clear and spark- 
ling eyes, and no one now, after seeing them side 
by side, could by any chance have mistaken their 
identity, however striking the resemblance may 
have been at an earlier age. 

“Well, this is extraordinary, ’’said Mr. Livingston 
after Job had related his own experiences of the 
wreck, “and you say the other boy whom you 
believe to have been Alexander was travelling with 
his mother? ” 


190 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


“Yes, and Dan Bryce, whom I was with all the 
time, will tell you the same thing. We left them 
both on the reef along with some others.’’ 

This was calculated to shake Mrs. Livingston’s 
belief that Alexander was her own son, notwith- 
standing it had been proved he was not Mrs. 
Besse’s, and she merely remarked to Job : 

“ The person you supposed was his mother may 
not have been so, and there is no certainty, only a 
probability, that the bodies we saw belonged to the 
wreck of your vessel, and there are so many 
strange things occurring all the time that I have 
ceased to wonder at anything. Truth is indeed 
stranger than fiction ! ” 

“A man convinced against his will 
Is of the same opinion still.” 

She deserved sympathy, and Job, looking at her, 
thought, but did not say : 

*• Tis better to be lowly born, 

And range with humble livers in content. 

Than to be perked up in a glistening grief, 

And wear a golden sorrow.” 

‘"I would like to see the ringmaster and clown 
of the circus again,” said Mr. Livingston to Job, 
“ and also to confer with Mr. Dan Bryce. I sup- 
pose you have no objection ? ” 

‘'None at all. I am going back to meet the 
troupe at Tarrytown to-day, and you may make 
sure of finding it by coming with me.” 

“Very well, I’ll do so. Aleck, do you want to 
come and see your old friends ? ” 

The reply was in the affirmative, and Mr. Living- 
ston ordered his four-in-hand to be got ready, and 
in half an hour afterwards — with Alexander seated 
at his side — was driving Mrs. Besse and Job 
towards Newark, where the latter parted atfec- 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE. 


i9r 

tionately from his mother in front of her own door, 
the neighbors besieging them on all sides, attracted 
by the unusual display of equipage and emotion. 
Then, remounting the carriage, he was driven at a 
rattling pace to Jersey City, and Mr. Livingston 
found him an agreeable companion by the way. 
Before dusk he and his two companions were the 
centre of a group in which Dan Bryce, Orlando, 
the ringmaster, and Billy Buttons, the clown, 
were especially prominent. 

Mr. Livingston’s solicitude to solve the mystery 
of his son’s fate was naturally very great, and he 
remarked to Job : 

“God’s will be done, but this anxiety and sus- 
pense are hard to bear ; and there is nothing I can 
do that I will leave undone in my efforts to discover 
him, or learn all there is to be learned. The case 
looks more mysterious than ever, but everything 
comes to those who wait. I sometimes think, with 
Mrs. Livingston, that Alexander may really be our 
missing boy, and yet the time and place of your 
own disappearance seem to correspond exactly with 
his. There is mystery all around us, and your 
mother’s identification of Alexander as her son 
before she corrected her mistake through discover- 
ing you only deepens the mystery. But I feel that 
all will yet be revealed.” 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

One February day, long after this, the adven- 
turous Job Fenwick resolved to surprise his mother 
by calling upon her unannounced, and he walked 
from the railway station straight to where she 
lived. 


192 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


It was a red brick house three stories high, and 
very narrow, as if it had built itself, and its modesty 
prevented it from making itself any wider out of 
regard for the feelings of the narrow street in which 
it stood, but it tried to gain compensation for this 
sacrifice to symmetry, and deference to the street, 
by running a long way back, much further indeed 
than well constructed and properly regulated 
houses usually do, an example which all the ad- 
joining houses had strictly followed, showing how 
contagious example is, and reminding us that we 
should be very careful about what we do, not 
knowing who may follow, for imitation, as we well 
know, is by no means confined to monkeys and 
the Chinese. 

At the back of this narrow house, in this narrow 
street, there was a yard with what might have been 
taken for telegraph wires, crossing and recrossing 
it, raised and supported apparently by poles, and as 
all the neighboring yards were similarly equipped, 
it looked as if an extensive telegraph service 
had been organized in the rear of these premises, 
for what purpose was not exactly apparent ; but the 
mystery of their being there would have been 
cleared up in the mind of any one who saw them, 
if he had made his inspection on any Monday after- 
noon or Tuesday, for every washing day they 
were draped with banners, chiefly white — and it 
was evident at a glance that what, on days when 
they were naked, had the semblance of a system 
of telegraph wires, starting off to girdle the earth, 
were only so many clothes lines on which family 
linen was hung out to dry. 

The windows in front of this narrow house in the 
narrow street were provided with outside meat- 
safe looking blinds, painted green, and the door 
was furnished with a bright brass knocker in addi- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


m 

tion to the bell with a brass knob as bright as the 
knocker, in the door-post. The bell and the 
knocker seemed to belong to the same family — if 
such things can be spoken of in this connection — 
they were so much alike and both so highly 
polished. 

When Job pulled the bell he saw his hand reflec- 
ted in the handle while his face was partly visible 
in the knocker, and he said to himself — “This is 
just like my mother ; she always would have every- 
thing neat and clean, and done as it should be."' 

His reflections were interrupted by the opening 
of the door, and there stood before him a rather 
tall, thin woman with a long face furrowed with 
wrinkles, and a yellowish white skin. A woman 
somewhat haggard and broken in appearance, with 
only vestiges of teeth, and who had never known 
what it was to be plump since she was a baby — a 
woman who had grown leaner and more shrivelled 
as she had grown older, and on whose brow care 
and sorrow had left their traces, and whose once 
thick brown hair had grown scanty and been 
silvered by the frost of time — a woman whose 
serious, earnest character could be read in her deep 
hazel eyes and the sober, almost sad, expression of 
her countenance, in the strong lines about her 
large mouth, and the long pinched nose which 
nearly led down to it, and which gave sharpness 
to her features, ending in a small pointed chin, 
corresponding with her unobtrusive ears and her 
delicate and well shaped hands. 

She started as. she caught sight of the visitor, and 
a faint flush rose to her cheek, while her eyes 
flashed with unwonted fires, for she knew nothing 
of his coming, otherwise she would have exchanged 
the white morning cap and old stuff gown which 
she wore for her black Sunday cap, with handsome 

13 


MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


194 

ribbons in it, and her black silk dress which she had 
bought for herself out of money Job had given her. 
on his previous visit, and prepared herself for the 
occasion generally, but it made no difference to 
Job how she was apparelled, whether in the purple 
and fine linen of her wardrobe or the homeliest 
deshabille, for she was his mother, and though he 
had been a very wayward and undutiful son he 
loved her and was more than glad to see her and 
to find that she was still in the land of the living. 

“ My gracious. Job ! ” she exclaimed as soon as 
she summoned breath for the purpose. “ Is that 
you .? 

Yes, mother, how are you .? ” Whereupon they 
closed the door, and embraced in the narrow hall- 
way, from which they entered the narrow but deep 
front parlor, close by. 

Poor Hephzibah, whilom the wife and widow of 
the unfortunate and lamented Zachary Fenwick of 
Sandlake, was indeed delighted to see her son 
Job. She threw her arms around him, and kissed 
him with all the fervor of a mother’s love for her 
first-born, and as he caressed her tenderly in re- 
turn, and she looked up into his handsome eyes, 
her face warmed and fairly glowed with pleasure. 

Oh ! Fm so glad to see you, Job. It’s so long 
since you came to see me,” she said, and her eyes 
began to glisten, with rising tears as her mind 
reverted to the past. 

“Yes, I know. I expected to come sooner, but 
I couldn’t. Forgive me, mother ; I know you will. 
How are you, and how have you been .? ” 

“Thank the Lord, Job, I’ve been well. How 
have you been ? ” 

“Oh, I’ve been knocking about in all sorts of 
ways, but I’ve generally managed to come out right 
end uppermost, and things have gone swimmingly 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


195 


with me. I don’t want to blow about it, but 
confidentially I'll tell you that I’m a success” — 
and seeing that his mother looked just the least bit 
puzzled or incredulous, he didn’t know which, he 
gave her an emphatic nod. 

'‘Yes, a success,” he replied ; “ but mark me. I’ll 
be a great deal bigger one yet, and the boys will 
find it out some day,” and he gave her what is called 
a knowing wink and a purse with a hundred dollars 
in it. 

“I’m glad to hear it, my son, and I hope you 
may obtain all you wish for, and I thank you for 
this ; but you shouldn’t wink. Job. You know the 
Bible speaks against him that ‘ winketh with his 
eye,’ and remember that there is no success like that 
of having lived a righteous life ; so in all your ways. 
Job, I trust you’ll live in fear of the Lord and do His 
holy will.” 

‘ ‘ I’ll try to, but I have been a great backslider, I 
know. I only hope the Lord will forgive me for 
all I have done and left undone, and you must 
pray for me, mother.” 

“Pray for you, Job ! I’ve always prayed for you 
from the very hour you were born, and shall con- 
tinue to do so as long as my Heavenly Father gives 
me life. When you ran away from me to join the 
circus, and I didn’t know whether you were living 
or dead for so many long sorrowful years, I never 
ceased to pray for your return to me, and the Lord 
rewarded me at last.” 

Here her eyes filled with tears and her voice 
broke with emotion. 

“Yes, I know I did very wrong — very, and I can 
never forgive myself for causing you so much suf- 
fering, but you have forgiven me, mother dear, 
haven’t you ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed I have, my boy.” 


196 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

^‘Then let us change the subject and have some- 
thing cheerful. Speaking of winking, I didn’t know 
that it was contrary to Scripture before, and that 
you didn’t allow it. What do you say to forty 
winks after dinner } Did you ever indulge in that 
way, or don’t you allow that sort of thing — that is, 
winks in any shape ? ” 

‘‘ I believe,” she said, entirely unappreciative of 
his joke but understanding it perfectly, “in sleep 
for the weary.” 

“Ah! that is your way of acknowledging the 
corn, is it, mother .? ” and he laughed in his usual 
good-humored way, but his mother was not much 
given to mirth or laughter, and placed small value 
upon wit and humor, while taking infinite pleasure 
in grave discussions, especially on sacred subjects. 

“Oh, where are Mr. Besse and Joe? How are 
they — well ? ” he inquired. 

“Yes, Job, they are well now, but Joshua had a 
fit of sickness last year that I thought would go hard 
with him, and one doctor said it was his liver, and 
another that it was his heart, and another that it 
was his kidneys, and none of them could be got to 
agree as to what was the matter with him, and 
they all seemed to give him up and said they 
couldn’t do anymore for him, so he stopped taking 
medicine and remained quietly at home for six 
weeks, and since then he has been as well as he 
ever was.” 

“I’m glad of it. ‘Throw physic to the dogs,’ 
say I.” 

“ Here he is coming in from his work now,” she 
said, rising to let him in, while the door-bell rang 
at the end of the hallway by the kitchen, for there 
was no basement to the house. 

“Guess who’s here?” she said to her husband, 
and led him into the parlor, when Job rose to grasp 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 197 

both the extended hands of a man he had long; ago 
forgiven for having — accidentally, as he supposed 
— slain his father, and whom he esteemed none the 
less because of his being an illiterate mechanic. 
He was one, however, who knew enough of the 
advantages of education, as all such men do, to be 
proud of his wife’s great superiority over him in 
this respect. 

He was her junior by two years, and looked ten 
years younger — a thickset, broad-shouldered, stout, 
hard-working man, with iron-gray hair, and con- 
siderably more girth than he had at one time, and 
height enough — he was about five feet ten — to 
carry off his rather massive head and face — a man 
whose muscles were as hard and well defined as 
whipcord, with a naturally swarthy complexion 
tanned not only by the sun but by fire and smoke, 
who had keen, dark eyes and a large, keen nose, too 
bunchy to be handsome, but one nevertheless that 
would have met the approbation of the First 
Napoleon — had one of his generals been the pos- 
sessor of it, — and one moreover whose benevolent 
look gave no indication of the jealousy, resent- 
ment, and remorse he had known. 

“Why, Job!” he exclaimed in surprise. “Is 
that you Bless my soul and body I Where did 
you come from.? Fm glad to see you,” and the 
two men warmly grasped each other by both 
hands. 

Indeed their greeting was almost as affectionate 
as that of father and son instead of stepfather and 
stepson, and Joshua seemed to rejoice at the strides 
Job was making in the w^orld according to the 
signs of prosperity which he presented, for Job was 
always fond of dress and rather too ostentatious in 
his display of jewelry, and his taste for fine clothes 
h^d grown with his means of gratifying it. 


198 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

A little later his half-brother Joe came in — a 
tall, muscular, healthy-looking, dark-complexioned 
young man who was equally fond of playing base 
ball and teaching a Sunday school at the Methodist 
church the family attended, and w^ho was admi- 
rably successful in both. 

Joe almost jumped into Job’s arms with the 
natural impulsiveness of youth, he was so de- 
lighted to see him, and the two clasped each other 
round the waist, and shook hands so desperately 
hard that Job, who had a couple of rings on his 
fingers, cried out — 

“Stop, you are hurting me,” and showed the 
deep indentations in his fingers next to those on 
which he wore these emblems of bondage, for 
doubtless they are relics of slavery in the dark 
ages, although they serve to typify endless affection 
in the form of engagement and wedding rings on 
the fingers of women in our own times. 

“ I can speak well of your muscle, Joe, for you 
have a grip like a vice,” remarked Job, upon which 
Joe apologized for his muscle, and then they all sat 
down — a little family party of four — in the narrow 
room to talk. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

Hepzy and Joshua and Joe seemed +0 feel equally 
proud of Job, and listened to his words as to the 
utterances of an oracle, while Joe began to wonder 
whether he could ever rise as high as his big 
brother, and in the endeavor to solve this problem 
derived what assistance he could from looking 
first at Job and then at the ceiling, and vice versa, 
but the results of his cogitations on the subject 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


m 

were so indefinite and unsatisfactory that he soon 
gave up his efforts at its solution like a conundrum 
he couldn’t guess. 

“John Stetson and Susan are dying to see you, 
Job,” remarked his mother. 

“Ah! John Stetson — Uncle Jack, eh? who was 
given up for lost, a quarter of a century ago. Why, 
he has lived two lives. I remember his coming 
home that evening long ago as vividly as if it 
were yesterday, although I was so young. I can 
see him letting himself in by lifting the latch at the 
street door, and coming into the kitchen where 
you and mother were talking with Widow Stetson, 
as you called her, and Susan, as they were getting 
the supper ready. When they caught sight of him 
they looked as if they had seen a ghost, but finding 
he wasn’t a ghost they all rushed at him, Mrs. Stet- 
son embracing him as her drowned husband, 
Susan doing the same thing, as her shipwrecked 
father, and mother emulating both over the brother 
she supposed to have been dead for three or four 
years, and whose wife she had just accidentally been 
thrown in with, without knowing who the husband 
was of whom she thought herself bereft. What a 
meeting that was, and what a story Uncle Jack, the 
mate of the whaler, told — how a whale that was be- 
ing harpooned upset the boat he was in when it 
was far from the ship — how he climbed up on it 
and clung to the keel like grim Death to a de- 
parted cullud pusson,’ otherwise God’s image 
carved in ebony, otherwise a dead nigger — how he 
stuck there all night and till noon the next day, 
when he was picked up by a passing ship, but not 
his own, and so saved almost by a miracle from the 
watery grave which all his companions in the boat 
had found — how the ship having no oil when Jack 
was taken aboard, and whales being scarce, made 


200 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

so long a voyage that she didn’t get back to New 
Bedford, for three years and a half afterwards. 
Jack’s ship, which was nearly filled up with oil, 
when he parted from her, having more than three 
years before returned home and reported him lost 
with the others, and it was, I must say, the most 
natural thing in the world for Mrs. Stetson to be- 
lieve herself a widow and Susan a fatherless girl. 
But see how mistaken they were. He came back 
to prove circumstantial evidence in his case a lie. 
What a bomb-shell in the kitchen he’d have been, 
if Mrs. Stetson had happened to marry again before 
his reappearance ! But it was a first class sensation 
anyhow. Didn’t want to go whaling after that.” 

“Not much,” dryly remarked Joshua. 

“Job,” said his mother as he bade her good-bye, 
“ I’m real proud of you! Promise to come and 
see me again soon,” and the adventurer again dis- 
appeared. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


201 


PART II. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

In the year 1846 a large and showy peddler’s 
wagon with the unusual number of four horses — 
each full of mettle and handsomely harnessed — 
was passing almost as swiftly as an old-fashioned 
mail coach from village to village and town to 
town in Connecticut, and on both sides of this 
bazaar on wheels — for such from the variety of its 
contents it might be called — was painted in large 
red letters, Yankee Notions. 

The driver, whose only companion was a boy, 
and who handled the ribbons with as much ease 
as an overland stage-driver, was a handsome young 
fellow hardly yet arrived at man s estate, who sold 
almost everything except eatables and drinkables, 
and had such fluency of speech, and persuasive- 
ness of manner that wherever he stopped he drew 
a crowd, and wherever he drew a crowd he found 
customers. He already played the graybeard and 
talked like a young Solomon — II fait deia le barhon 
— and said many witty things without trying to be 
witty, for wit is like a coquette : those who run 
after it are the least favored. He descanted upon 
his wares as if they were pearls of great price and 
things of beauty, the possession of which would be 
a joy forever, and he made a point of selecting only 
goods which would please, such, according to a 


toi A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

French proverb, being already half sold. To please 
the eye is to pick the purse. He praised and petted 
the children, and flattered the women about their 
good looks, and cracked jokes innumerable upon 
all sorts of subjects, never failing to arouse mirth 
and laughter whenever he opened his mouth, for 
he had that gniete de coeur which is contagious. 

Thus, for instance, one day after selling for 
twenty-five cents a pocket-handkerchief with a 
printed border, which he warranted to wash, the 
woman who had bought it turned round and said : 
^‘You’re sure it’ll wash, are you.?” 

“Yes, mam,” he replied, “quite sure. Do you 
think I’d tell a lie for twenty-five cents ? ” 

“Oh, no, I didn’t say as you would. I should 
be very sorry to think you’d do such a thing as 
that, if you’ve any fear of the Lord before you,” 
after which he coolly added : 

“Mind you, I don’t say I wouldn’t tell four lies 
for a dollar, but hang me if I’d tell one for a quar- 
ter ! ” — an exhibition of moral depravity which 
shocked the good woman who had invested in the 
pocket-handkerchief, and made all the lookers-on 
laugh at the pleasantry of the distinction. He had 
an unlimited amount of what is called brass, or 
cheek, and it was Rochefoucault who said that 
confidence is generally found to supply more ma- 
terials for conversation than either wit or talent. 
La confiance fournit plus a la conversation que t es- 
prit. 

The gay young peddler drove a rattling trade, 
for he often persuaded the gentle sex to buy what 
they did not want regardless of the adage that any- 
thing so bought is dear at a penny. He had no 
hesitation in selecting out of every crowd a butt 
for his sarcasms, for a man of wit would often be 
much embarrassed without the company of fools. 


A MAkVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 203 

He was unique among cheap Jacks — to use the 
English name for his class — and the French would 
have said of him il conduit hien sa barque — he steers 
his boat well, and knows how to make his way 
through the: world — but after more than a years 
experience as an itinerant trader, he disappeared 
from the road, and none of those he had amused 
by his humorous sallies, in the villages he had been 
in the habit of visiting, knew what had become of 
him. 

The fact was that he had grown tired of his voca- 
tion, the novelty of which made it for a while 
attractive to him, and novelty he esteemed the 
most delightful of all things. Estquoque cunctarum 
novitas cartssima rerum. His nature craved excite- 
ment and change of scene, and he shrank from 
monotony of any kind. Hence it was that, meet- 
ing a man who offered to buy him out, he sold 
him the whole concern, as he called it, which, by 
this time, was considerably the worse for wear, and 
in looking about him for some fresh occupation — 
he was not particular to a shade what — he heard 
of a cattle dealer who wanted a herd of horned 
cattle driven to the New York market. He knew 
the country well, and having heard that the cattle 
business was lucrative, he applied fo^ the job, 
whereupon his services were accepted, and for the 
nonce he became a drover. But when he reached 
the Bull’s Head Market with his drove, and talked 
beeves wiih-ihe habitues of that unromantic quarter, 
he said : “I’ll quit droving, and be a jobber my- 
self ; ” so he began to deal by buying cattle at one 
price and. selling them at another, and generally 
at a profit. 

He showed an astonishing aptitude for his new 
calling, and his ready wit served him well in mak- 
ing bargains, while it won for him friends among 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


id4 

his new acquaintances ; but he tired of being a 
cattle-dealer far sooner than he had done of a trav- 
eling peddlers life. The business was of too 
rough a kind to allow him to wear fine clothes, 
and it never brought him into the society of the 
fair sex, in which he delighted, for he was vain of 
his appearance, and had an idea that he was gen- 
erally admired by those whose admiration he 
coveted. 

In casting around — to use an expression of his 
own — for a new sphere of action, he fell into con- 
versation with one Jeremy Gumbles, the proprietor 
of the Boar’s Head Tavern, in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the cattle market, who said to him : “If you 
want to make a pile of money, come in here. I’ve 
been so long in the business — and I’m so crippled 
with the rheumatiz — I want to clear out. I came 
to New York — we called it York in those days — 
from Dutchess County, a bare-foot boy, and I can 
leave it to-morrow with more than fifty thousand 
clear money. This is no ornery biz. It’s a sure 
thing — a dead sure thing ; and you begin to take 
in the dimes every morning, but Sunday, at four 
o’clock. Very few businesses can do that, eh? 
I guess not. Now, you’re a forehanded, likely 
enough young fellow. It’ll just suit you — suit you 
to a dot. I’ve made all I said outen it, and I guess 
you can make just as much if you’ll run the machine 
as I’ve run it. I’ll show you how the old thing 
works, and make the terms easy for you — easy 
as an old shoe — and I’ll do my level best to help 
you along. Come — ‘Faint heart never won fair 
lady ’ — what do you say ? It’s a chance you don’t 
often get, I’ll bet, and if it wasn’t that I’m taken 
with your looks — you’re so like a son of my own, 
dead and gone — you wouldn’t get it now. He 
was tall for his age, and took after his poor mother 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


205 

instead of me. There’s only one Boar’s Head in 
these parts, and you might look all over without 
finding another.” 

“Well, Mr. Gumbles,” was the reply, I don’t 
know but what I’d better try my hand at turning 
an honest penny, in that way, and if I come out 
at the small end of the horn, why, all right. I’ll try 
again somewhere else. What’s your lowest figure 
for the whole concern just as it stands ? ” 

“See here, young man, how much money have 
you got ? ” 

“No white man can tell that but myself, Mr. 
Gumbles, and you don’t get me to show my hand, 
and count my ducats, in that way. How much 
do you want ? If the figure suits me then we can 
talk business. I cut my eye-teeth some time ago, 
and I’m just as smart as Lucifer, although I say it 
myself,” and he laughed good-iiumoredly. He 
required to learn the maxim which says. Neither 
praise nor blame thyself — neque culpa, neque lauda 
letpsum. 

“ I guess you are, but I wouldn’t want to be as 
smart as you are. You’re altogther too smart to 
live,” and the old landlord after this retort laughed 
too. 

“You don’t say so ? Well, if I die first, oblige 
me by being one of my pall-bearers, won’t you.? 
and if I don’t — as one good turn deserves another 
• — I’ll be one of yours, and, if necessary, be your 
executor, and pay your funeral expenses after you’ve 
passed in your checks. I’d give you rosewood and 
silver screws — everything tip-top, just as you’d like 
it if you were looking on.” 

“Well, that’s what we’ve all got to come to, 
young man, willy-nilly, and it isn’t a thing to joke 
about, neither. I guess you’ve never been born 
again ? ” 


2o6 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

‘^Not that I know of ; but I agree with you, Mr. 
Gumbles, death is what we have all got to come 
to. Still, it is idle to dread what we cannot avoid. 

“ ‘ And nothing can we call our own but death, 

And that small model of the barren earth 
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. * 

^‘Neither fear nor wish for your last day,’’ says 
Martial, and a well balanced mind neither timidly 
shrinks from death nor desires to hasten its ap- 
proach. 

“Why, have you been born again, Mr. Gum- 
bles ? ’’ continued the young man. 

“ Yes, sir, I was converted more than twenty-five 
3'’ears ago at camp meeting up at Sing Sing, and 
I’ve tried to be a good Methodist ever since, and 
was never so happy in my life before I experi- 
enced a change of heart as I was after it. Yes, 
sir, it did me a heap of good — a heap of good, and 
I advise you and every other man to be born again 
in the same way. There’s nothing like it in this 
world, say what you will. It made a new man of 
me.” 

“So you’ve been in Sing Sing,” said his inter- 
locutor. 

“Not in the prison, though. I was made a 
prisoner of the Lord there.” 

“And yet, Mr. Gumbles, you have been selling 
liquor by the glass ever since.” 

“Yes, and liquor by the hogshead, if anybody 
wants it. People must eat and drink, and it’s not me 
that’s to blame if they drink oftener than they ought 
to.” 

“Well, Mr. Gumbles, for the sake of your soul’s 
salvation, I advise you — as a friend, mind you — to 
give up this business at once.” 

“Oh, yes — more of your smartness. That’s too 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


207 


thin. I guess you want to make a better bargain. 
I’m all right. I hope you’re as well prepared to 
join the army of the Lord as I am.” 

“ I trust I am, Mr. Gumbles. I fear my chances 
would be very slim if I were not — that is — ahem ! — 
I think everybody’s chance would be very slim, and 
for the sake of my folks and your folks — or we uns 
and you uns, as they say in Virginia — I hope and 
pray we’ll all come out right side up. But give up 
this tavern business right away. You’re too old 
and too good a man for it” 

“Oh, yes — how dreadfully smart you are getting 
to be I Don’t you see I’ve my two daughters to 
help me, and that takes a load of work off my 
hands ? ” 

“Two daughters I I’ve only seen one.” 

“Oh, yes, that’s the oldest She’s a widow — 
that is, she’s as good as a widow, she’s been di- 
vorced, and the way she was used is shameful. 
She married Sam Shuffles, a picayune young fellow 
who clerked it in a store in the Bowery. I’d known 
him ever since he was a boy, and his father lives 
close by here now. Well, after he got married, he 
said he’d go out West and open a store. So he went 
to Ohio, and from there — after skirmishing around 
awhile — he went to Indiana and opened a store in 
Indianapolis. He and Sarah seemed to get on first- 
rate at first, but by and by he smiled too often — 
crooked his elbow too much and began nagging 
her, so they got to quarreling at a great rate, and 
he made things lively for her. Well, do you know 
that he got a shyster to make a complaint in court 
against her for incompatibility without letting her 
know anything about it, and one day he came home 
at dinner time a little set-up with whisky straights, 
and handed her a decree of divorce — that’s what it 
was called— and said to her, ‘Sarah, we’re di- 


2o8 a marvellous coincidence, 

vorced. You’re no longer my wife ! ’ I wish some 
one had been there to block his little game and 
drive him to the wall, but there wasn’t. ‘Good 
God ! ’ said she, ‘ you don’t say so. I haven’t 
heard a word about it.’ ‘I didn't mean that you 
should,’ said he, ‘ and I want you to take your child 
and go back to New York this afternoon as soon as 
you can get ready. Hurry up ! That’s all I’ve got 
to say about it’ If that wasn’t steep — a high old 
game — I don’t know what is. He ought to have 
been made to squirm for it Well, poor thing, it 
was a hard blow for her, and a long journey for her 
to make with a child only three years old, but she 
did it, and came back to me the saddest creature 
you ever saw, with her child sick in her arms, and 
the next morning it died. That was another blow, 
but I don’t know that it wasn’t for the best It’s 
nearly five years ago now, and she’s got over it, 
but I always feel sorry for her when I think of it. 
It was hard times for her. It was rough ; and I 
felt real mad with the skunk as served her so, and 
do still. A sockdolloger would have been too good 
for him. He was the smallest kind of small pota- 
toes to go back on her like that, but I told her to 
forget him and come and worry along with me 
again. The way they grant divorces out West is a 
caution. It’s outrageous ; it’s worse than in Con- 
necticut. Why, a man can get divorced from his 
wife there in almost no time, and without her know- 
ing a thing about it, as you see, and if she does 
know I’m told she couldn’t help herself.” 

Mr. Gumbles was about right. Even as the law 
stands in Indiana and several other States, with 
certain allegations made, certain affidavits filed 
and certain ex parte evidence heard, but little dis- 
cretionary power is left to the court, and divorces 
are granted with disgraceful precipitation. The 


A MARVELLOUS. COINCIDENCE. 209 

case is slightly changed where the proceedings are 
contested, but there rarely is a contest, and very 
often — as in the instance referred to by Mr. Gumbles 
— no notice of the pendency of the case is given to 
the defendant, although the law of the State, it is 
fair to say, requires actual notice to be served by 
reading or leaving a copy of the summons at the 
defendant's place of residence, if a resident of the 
State. The fact remains, however, that divorces 
can be procured in Indiana as secretly and with as 
much facility as when ‘‘constructive notice" was 
allowed so wide a range as to make it a mere sham, 
and it is not a rare occurrence in that State for the 
same person to be divorced several times from as 
many different husbands or wives, while re-mar- 
riages by those who have been divorced from each 
other are so common as to excite no particular 
comment. What better commentary and satire on 
the laxity of the divorce laws could be offered than 
the latter of themselves furnish Until recently 
individuals discontented with their marriage rela- 
tions who resided anywhere out of Indiana, could 
go there, and without actual residence obtain di- 
vorces in the same easy way as was open to resi- 
dents, but the law was amended so as to require a 
long term of residence to qualify an applicant to 
come into court with a complaint, and the foreign 
divorce scandal has therefore been greatly lessened. 

“That Sam Shuffles ought to off his mortal 

coil," remarked Mr. Gumbles' auditor. “A man 
who'd serve a woman in that way i§ altogether too 
small — too picayune — too mean to live." 

“Well, yes, but there's always two sides to a 
story, you know, and Sarah didn't manage him 
well. She says she was partly to blame for it, and 
I always liked Sam till then, but I've called him a 
skunk ever since. But as I was going to tell you, 

14 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


2 10 

my other daughter Betty’s a great deal younger, 
and 's never been married ; she stays upstairs, and 
in the kitchen, and I’d like to see the girl as could 
beat her at cooking victuals. For getting up a good 
square meal I’d back her against the best of them. 
She’s my right bower,* she is that.” 

^‘She must be a perfect treasure — a Koh-i-noor 
among the jewels of her sex,” 

“ Treasure ! I guess she is ; your head is level 
there, sonny ; I’ll let you see her — she’s a right 
smart girl, as likely a girl as ever you saw, and 
knows all the ins and outs of the business. You’re 
not married, I guess, are you } ” 

Not a bit of it.” 

‘‘Then, ’’said Mr. Gumbles, “she’d suit you to a 

fji ■ 

“ I suppose you think 

“ ‘ She’s beautiful, and therefore to be wooed ; 

She is a woman, and therefore to be won. ’ ’ ’ 

“You’ve hit it just right, young man; you’ll 
suit her to a dot.” 

Mr. Gumbles was as good a match-maker as if 
he had been a French pere who believed in the 
maxim marie to7i fils quand iu voudras, mats la fille 
quand iu pourras — marry your son when you will, 
your daughter when you can. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

The candidate for matrimony and the Boar’s 
Head was as keen at making a bargain as in say- 
ing sharp things, for to no purpose is he wise who 
is not wise -for himself, and the upshot of the ne- 

♦ The Jack of trumps in euchre— the best card in the pack^ 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 211 

gotiations begun by Mr. Gumbles was that he sold 
the lease and good-will, the fixtures, furniture, and 
stock-in-trade of the Boar’s Head tavern for five 
thousand dollars, only two thousand of which was 
to be paid in cash, and a chattel mortgage given 
for the remainder, bearing interest at seven per cent, 
per annum. It was further agreed that the trans- 
action should be completed by the payment of the 
money and the execution of the mortgage at two 
o’clock on the day following. 

“ And here’s my unmarried daughter Betty ! ” 
said Mr. Gumbles, introducing her to the stranger in 
the kitchen after the bargain was concluded. Betty 
and the visitor seemed to regard each other with a 
look of startled surprise, and while the one bowed 
and the other curtsied both remained silent, white 
Mr. Gumbles rattled on. 

“Betty,” he continued, “I’ve sold out to this 
young man because I’ve taken a fancy to him, he’s 
so like your poor brother Stephen, the very picture 
of him, and I’m going back to Dutchess County to 
take a little rest in my old age. How do you like 
him, Betty ? ” — with a conspicuous wink at the 
purchaser. — “ He’s single, and he’s handsome, 
and he’s almighty smart, and there’s no use in his 
trying to keep the Boar’s Head without a wife. 
What do you think of him, Betty ? ” 

For a converted man Mr. Gumbles had a face 
decidedly too rubicund ; and although he was 
small of stature, he was otherwise possessed of the 
proportions of an alderman. In other words, he was 
a short, fat, gouty-looking man, with a round red 
face, a bull neck, and a bald head, who seemed to 
have been all the seventy years of his life engaged 
in digging his grave with his teeth, and scooping it 
out with his tumbler — a bon vivant who had fallen in- 
to the sere and yellow leaf, and could hardly waddle 


212 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


under his excess of adipose tissue and other bodily 
infirmities. His red cheeks hung- down like bags 
on either side of his face in a way suggestive of 
those of a prize pig, and his girth round the waist 
was something awful for high livers to contemplate. 

Betty replied : “ He looks well enough. What 
do you ask me for } 

“Because,” said her father, “I wanted to see 
whether you fancied him? He’s just such a fine 
young fellow as you want.” 

Betty rather turned up her nose at this, and re- 
plied : “You know it takes two to make a bargain, 
father, and who told you I wanted anybody?” 

“Ay, that’s the way to answer him,” remarked 
the stranger. “You’ll wait till you’re asked, won’t 
you? And he’ll be a lucky man that gets you, I 
can tell him.” 

The old man chuckled, rubbed his hands with 
delight, punched the young man in the back to 
encourage him, and ejaculated : “D’ye hear that, 
Betty. He’s over head and ears in love, and begun 
to court you already. ” 

Betty laughed outright, and so did the newcomer, 
who was fully equal to enjoying the proceedings, 
even if the old man did make rather too free with 
his affections. 

“ Betty knows better than to allow herself to be 
courted by proxy, 1 guess,” he observed, “but 
there’s many a true thing said in jest.” 

“What do you think of that, Betty?” broke in 
the father, again punching the cattle-dealer — this 
time in the ribs — and rubbing his hands with un- 
disguised pleasure, for much of his wit lay in these 
usebil members. 

“Don’t answer him, Betty. Let it be a secret 
between ourselves — eh ? ’’ 

“As you say; I’m willing.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


213 


Another dig in the ribs, accompanied by the ex- 
clamation, “ She's willing — she says she is. Take 
her while she's in the humor." 

“What nonsense, father! The gentleman will 
wonder what's happened to you. But he knows 
too much, I can see, to think that I've anything to 
do with your fooling. I'm sure / don't mind it if 
he doesn't. You know," she continued, smiling, 
and turning to the stranger, “it's father’s way. 
You mustn’t mind him." 

“Oh, certainly, I understand. I don't object to 
it a bit if you don’t. In fact, it suits me exactly." 

This sent the highly corpulent landlord of the 
Boar’s Head into a roar, or rather paroxysm, of 
laughter which heightened his complexion to the 
color of a boiled lobster. 

“I'm glad to hear it,” said Betty, joining in the 
laugh, and at the same time darning her father’s 
stockings. 

“Then we're suited all around. We've nothing 
to do but kiss and get married right away on the 
spot, that I can see. How is it, Mr. Gumbles?" 
and he gave Betty a knowing smile. 

She took the joke pleasantly, and laughed again, 
but Mr. Gumbles suddenly seemed to think that 
matters were progressing almost too rapidly, and 
to assume that his successor was in earnest, so his 
expression became more serious, and he said : 
“Look here, aren’t you getting on a little bit too 
fast.? Wait till the business is settled to-morrow, 
but we'll call it a settled thing anyhow, and Betty’ll 
get her things all ready, won't you, Betty ? ” 

It was now the turn of the other two to laugh, 
which they did in earnest, paierfamilias finally 
joining in. 

“ It seems to me," said the tavern-purchaser to 
the girl, “ we have seen one another before ? Don't 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


2 [4 

you remember meeting me one afternoon when I 
was quite a young fellow, three or four years ago ? 
Dan Bryce’s circus was here, and you came up to 
me, and mistook me for your long lost brother, and 
said your name was Betty, and now that I think 
of it Betty Gumbles, for you said, ‘ Think of your 
gums and you’ll remember Gumbles,' and you gave 
me a handkerchief with a lot of yellow gold-fish 
figured on it, as a keepsake after you’d found out 
I wasn’t your brother?” 

“ Oh, yes, I remember,” said the girl, blushing. 
“Dear me, was it you? Yes, I thought you were 
my brother at first, you were so like him, but as 
soon as you spoke I knew I was mistaken. Was 
it you really ? ” 

“ I should rather think it was — no one else, I can 
assure you. And how you have grown ! And I’ve 
been thinking about you all this time, and wonder- 
ing if we should ever meet again.” 

Lovers, says Ovid, remember everything — mem- 
inerunt omnia amanies — and Betty and her beau had 
good memories. 

“ Well, I declare ! ” ejaculated Mr. Gumbles. 
“This is a pretty how d’ye do ! And so it was 
you, young fellow, it was you, was it, that she 
came home and told that long story about, and 
has been in love with ever since? How remark- 
able you should turn up again ! No wonder she 
mistook you for her brother, when you’re the 
image of him, though she ought to have known 
we’d have heard on him if he d been alive. But 
she was young then, and couldn’t get it out of her 
head that Steve and his mother were coming back.” 

Much talk ensued on the singular circumstance 
of the former meeting of Job and Betty, and she at 
once jumped to the conclusion that it could not be 
otherwise than that Providence had intended then; 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


for each other. But she had as yet no know^dge 
that he belonged to the circus of which he' spoke, 
for she had met him in plain clothes in the street, 
and was, therefore, equally unaware of his having 
related the rencontre for the amusement of a pub- 
lic audience. 

Dinner being ready. Job was invited to take pot 
luck and make one of the family party. “May 
good digestion wait on appetite," said he as he sat 
down, and, “ Here’s to our better acquaintance, 
young man ! " spoke Mr. Gambles as he raised a 
pewter of ale to his lips. 

“ The same to you, Mr. Gumbles ; but before you 
know a man thoroughly you must have eaten a 
bushel of salt with him." 

The guest affected horror to see his host help 
himself to a second quarter of a large mince pie 
from an adjoining bakery, and exclaimed : “Hold 
on there ; if you’re going to commit suicide by eat- 
ing that in my presence Til retire. Although I’m 
a Yankee, I think one of those pieces of block-tin 
is all any Christian ought to eat at once unless he 
has made his will and said his prayers in advance. 
I think an act of Congress should be passed mak- 
ing it a criminal offence, punishable with fine and 
imprisonment, or both, for any man to eat at one 
time two pieces of mince pie made at any bakery 
in the United States.’’ 

“Well, all I have to say to that," said the good- 
humored host, “ is what’s one man’s meat is 
another’s poison, and that when you run for Con- 
gress I won’t vote for you, and if you,’ re a Yankee 
and don’t like pie, you’re as big a curiosity as Tom 
thumb." 

Betty was as tall as her father was short, and as 
thin as he was fat. Her face was long and dark, 
without a trace of color. His was nearly as round as 


2i6 a marvellous coincidence, 

a full moon, and of light complexion. Nature had 
fashioned her after the likeness of her mother, who 
about ten years before this time, had been lost at 
sea, and wilhout being a handsome girl she was 
comely and prepossessing, with large black eyes, 
lustrous black hair, good teeth, well arched eye- 
brows, and an amiable expression of countenance. 
She was now in her twentieth year, and had been 
born in the Boar’s Head and lived there all her 
life. 

After Job had left the tavern on the occasion 
described, she said to her sister; “Sarah, isn’t it 
strange.? I feel that something’s going to happen. 
I shall marry that man. Mark my words. Only 
think of his being the one I thought was Steve, and 
gave the handkerchief to, and how he remembered 
all about it, though he’s changed so I didn’t hardly 
know him till he told me.” 

“ I shouldn’t wonder a bit at your marrying him 
after that. It looks as if God meant it. More 
wonderful things than that are happening every 
day, and it’s really extraordinary your meeting him 
again in this way. I heard you and him and father 
talking, and I’m sure there’d be nothing to wonder 
at. The wonder ’d be the other way. And so the 
old place has been sold ! Well, I never ! What 
am I going to do, I should like to know. Will any 
body tell me that.? ” 

‘ ‘ Why you’ll go and take care of father of course, 
or stay here and help me. ” 

Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, 
Betty, for although I said what I did it mayn’t 
come true. Expect nothing, I say, and you won’t 
be disappointed. There are so many slips in this 
world it isn’t safe to believe in anything till it’s 
happened. My head’s older than yours, Betty, and 
maybe I know more, though I don't know that I’m 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


217 

any the happier for it. I sometimes think the less 
you know the happier you are, or, as I read in a 
book once, ‘ where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to 
be wise.’ I shall never forget that. But I always 
had a hankering to know everything all the same, 
as you know, Betty, and when I was a child they 
could never keep the books away from me.” 

“Well, Sarah, what has all that got to do with 
my young man, I should like to know .? That’s 
always the way with you. You start on one thing 
and go off on to something else. What do you 
think of my marrying him ? That’s what I want 
to know.” 

“Marry him, I say, if you can, after he’s come 
into possession. I’d do it in a minute if I was in 
your place. He’s as handsome as handsome can 
be, a good deal handsomer, I think, than poor Steve, 
though wonderfully like him, and I’m not surprised 
at your having taken him for Steve when you did. 
He’s as young as you could wish him, almost too 
young for that matter, and I never saw anybody 
more lively and good-natured than he is.” 

“Well I’ll accept him, Sarah, if he asks me, and 
I’m sure he will. Remember what I say ! ” 

As she said this, in walked Harry Birdseed, a 
plain, middle-sized, common-looking, beardless, 
hatchet-faced young man of about twenty-five, an 
old beau of hers, the son of a neighboring grocer. 
Among those who knew him well, he had more 
reputation for silliness than anything else, and on 
this occasion he showed that his reputation was 
not ill deserved, for with a chapfallen expression 
of countenance, and in a squeaking voice, he said, 
“Good-evening, Betty, I hear you’re going to be 
married. Is that so ? ” 

He had a thoughtless way of saying whatever 
came into his head, and to speak without thinking, 


2i8 a marvellous coincidence, 

a Spanish proverb says, is like shooting without 
taking aim. Hablar sin pensar es iirar sin en carar, 

Betty replied very earnestly : “No, it isn't. Who 
told you } ” 

“Your father was just telling me, and it nearly 
took me out of my boots." 

“ Then he'd no business to. I don't know 
what’s the matter with him to-day.” 

“ I was very sorry to hear it, Betty,” continued 
her admirer, “for I meant to get the start of any 
one else if anything of that kind was to be done, 
and if it isn’t too late remember I’m at your ser- 
vice.” 

“I don't understand you, Harry. What do you 
mean ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, you do. I mean don't marry any other 
fellow. I’m as good as the rest of ’em, and a sight 
better than some of 'em, and you’re too smart a 
girl to throw yourself away on anybody. We've 
been together boy and girl for many a long year, 
and we belong to the same church, and what's 
more I’ve always hankered after you since you 
grew up, and the reason I didn't say anything much 
to you was I didn’t think you’d marry me or any- 
body else for that matter, but this that your father 
told me looked so like business it startled me, and 
made me feel as if I’d lost you altogether.” 

“Keep your mind easy, Harry,” said Betty ; 
“we’ve always been good friends and always will 
be, marry or no marry. ” 

“That means you don’t want me — eh?” 

“No, it doesn’t mean anything of the sort. 
What a man you are ! ” 

“Because if you don’t, Betty, I’ve made up my 
mind to drown myself.” 

“To drown yourself, Harry !” exclaimed Betty 
in a high key, with a look of horror and incredulity, 
“I never heard of such a thing.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


219 

At that moment Mr. Gumbles re-entered the 
kitchen, puffing and blowing, and in a high state 
of excitement, ejaculating, “Sarah! Sarah I Where 
is Sarah ? '' 

“She’s upstairs, father. What’s gone wrong 
now ” 

“I’m coming,” said Sarah, running downstairs. 

“Now for music I What do you think, Sarah } ” 

“What?” 

“Why, Sam Shuffles has come back full of re- 
pentance, and wants to marry you over again I 
He's been talking it all over to me, and is waiting 
at the bar to know if you’ll see him. I promised 
to come in here, and clear the course for him. 
He’s in earnest, I know he is.^’ 

“Oh I my goodness,” exclaimed Sarah in amaze- 
ment. “Who’d have thought it? What shall I 
do? I don’t want to see him, and won’t.” 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

While the interview between Mr. Gumbles and 
his daughter Sarah was taking place in the kitchen 
of the Boar’s Head, and precisely at that point in 
the conversation where the chapter referring to it 
concluded, he heard an irresolute footstep near the 
door leading to the bar, and looking round saw 
Sam Shuffles casting a furtive glance into the apart- 
ment as, half-concealed, he held himself back in 
the dim light of the passage-way. 

“Shuffles, is that you?” said Mr. Gumbles. 
“Come in.” 

The visitor with some hesitation, born of un- 
certainty as to the nature of his reception by Sarah, 
obeyed by moving forward with a shuffling gait. 


220 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

*^0h, why did you, father?’’ said the latter, and 
averted her face from the advancing figure. 

Shuffles looked at her with a sickly smile, as if 
he thought appearances were not particularly 
promising for his suit. He was silent for a moment 
like one awaiting further developments, and mean- 
while anxious to preserve a masterly inactivity ; 
but he found silence embarrassing, particularly as 
no one spoke to him, for Betty, espousing her 
injured sister’s side, studiously refrained from taking 
any notice of him whatever, and looked steadily 
into the fire, while her lover — Harry Birdseed — 
looked from her to her sister, and the embarrassed 
visitor to Mr. Gumbles, and wondered what was 
going to happen next. 

Mr. Gumbles was the first to break the silence 
with — “ Don’t all speak at once ! ” 

And then Sam Shuffles opened his mouth and 
said, pathetically : “Sarah, I’ve used you badly 
I know, but I want you to forgive me, and I’ve 
come on East to see if we can’t be friends again, 
and be all that we was before. I’ve been sorry for 
M’hat I did ever since, but it’s only now as I’ve 
screwed up my courage to this. I’m not what I 
was when we parted, Sarah. I’ve joined the Bap- 
tists, and given over drinking whisky, and I want 
to be a follower of the Lord, and the Lord told me 
I shouldn’t do right unless I asked your forgive- 
ness and offered to take you back. I know I was 
the one as was to blame ; — leastways I’m willing 
to take all the blame, though you did rile me pretty 
badly once or twice, but I blame the corn juice. 
Yes, Sarah, it was the whisky done it, not me. 
We didn’t bear nor forbear enough, but now as I’ve 
got religion I feel I’m on the right road, and all I 
need to make my peace with my God is to have 
you back in your old place, Sarah. Before I took 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


221 


to drinking, you know, we were as happy as the 
day was long, and there’s no reason now why we 
shouldn't be again if you’ll only take me over 
again. I wish I’d never known how easy it is to 
get a divorce in Indiana. It’s a bad law — a wicked 
law, I say — that allows folks to be divorced as we 
were, and there’s a great deal of injustice done 
under the name of justice by it. It’s a temptation 
to wrong-doing all the time. But there’s nothing, 
Sarah, to prevent our marrying again because 
we’ve been divorced in Indiana, or any other State, 
for I’ve inquired, so if you’re willing here I am, 
and I promise you I’ll never do badly by you again, 
and do all I can to make you as happy as we were 
when we were first married.” 

Here he paused for a reply, and wiped away the 
tears that had gathered jn his eyes, while Sarah — 
still standing with her face averted, and evidently 
overcome with emotion — was heard to sob. 

“Well done. Shuffles, you speak like a man. 
Confession’s good for the soul, and I hope you’ll win. 
There’s nothing like getting religion if you want to 
do right. Shuffles,” spoke Mr. Gumbles, encourag- 
ingly. 

“That’s so ; you’re right there. I’ve undergone 
an entire change of heart, and feel as if the Lord 
was my shepherd,” responded the former. 

“Just like me up at Sing Sing camp meeting. 
I’ve been a new man ever since.” 

“Sarah,” said Mr. Shuffles, hardly heeding this 
last remark, and drawing nearer to her, “won’t you 
speak to me ” 

He extended his hand and she gave him her own, 
and said : “ Yes, Sam, I’m glad to see you now that 
you’ve spoken so. It does my heart good to find 
that you’re better than I thought you were. I think 
better of you for coming on here and saying what 


222 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


you have said, but it's a hard thing to be divorced 
as I was, and very hard to forget, but I’ve read 
that to err is human, to forgive divine, and I for- 
give you with all my heart and soul.” 

“Thank you, Sarah,” said he in a voice half- 
choked with emotion, while the tears again welled 
up into his eyes, and advancing a step nearer 
kissed her. 

“ Well, I declare, you’ve made it all up again ! ” 
exclaimed Betty, turning round from the fire and 
facing the divorced couple, 

“Yes, Betty,” replied Mr. Shuffles, “and I’m the 
happiest man alive. Shake hands ! ” and he gave 
her a cordial grip which was more suggestive of 
his muscular strength than his moderation in 
manifesting it — an unpardonable fault in social in- 
tercourse — and she winced under it, and cried out, 
“Oh! you’re squeezing me 1 ” with such an ex- 
pression of pain that Harry Birdseed felt for an 
instant like rushing to’ the rescue, but instead of 
this he said — addressing Mr. Shuffles, whom he had 
known when a boy, but who had thus far acted as 
if oblivious of his presence — “See here! you’re 
going to marry Sarah over again. Let’s both get 
married at the same time ; you take her,” — pointing 
to the divorced wife — “ and I’ll take Betty ! ” 

“ Bless me ! what’s he talking about ? ” exclaimed 
the latter. 

“No, you don’t ! ” ejaculated Mr. Gumbles. ’ 

Mr. Shuffles looked in amazement at Betty’s 
amoroso, and said — “ Hillo ! Harry, is that you? 
I didn’t notice you before. So you’re engaged to 
marry Betty, eh ? ” 

“Nothing of the sort,” explained the latter. “I 
haven’t said I would. He cut that out of whole 
cloth, as father says.” 

‘I don’t know that,” remarked Shuffles. “But 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE, 


ill 

it’s clear if you don’t marry him it won’t be his fault” 

“ No, and, if she doesn’t I’m a gone coon,” added 
Mr. Birdseed. 

At this Mr. Gambles laughed immoderately, and 
all the rest — the speaker excepted — smiled. 

“I’ll drown myself, as I said, if you don’t, Betty,” 
continued the rejected lover, “and then I’ll come 
back to you in shrimps and lobsters.” 

“Nonsense! It’s very wrong to talk in that 
way,” said Betty, while Mr. Gambles went off into 
a fresh roar of laughter, and the smile of amuse-' 
ment on the faces of the others was renewed. 

The silly young man continued to press his suit 
in his own peculiar way, as if it were a matter of 
life or death with him, and he might have only a 
few hours longer to live, and when he bade Miss 
Betty Gambles adieu for the evening his conclud- 
ing words were, “ Think it over and sleep on it, 
Betty, and I’ll see you to-morrow. I guess I’ll not 
do anything till then.” 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

When the purchaser of the good-will, stock and 
furniture of the Boar’s Head came at the hour agreed 
upon on the next day to carry out his part of the 
bargain by paying two thousand dollars in cash, 
and giving a chattel mortgage for the remainder of 
the purchase-money, he found Mr. Gumbles in high 
spirits, and prepared to welcome him with open 
arms and a punch in the ribs. The business in hand 
was at once transacted — the money paid, and the 
mortgage signed, sealed and delivered in the pres- 
ence of Mr. Gumbles’ attorney, who attended for 
the purpose as a special favor to the latter on ac- 


224 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


count of his obesity — when, after the lawyer s de- 
parture, Mr. Gumbles said, in a confidential tone, 
“ Well what do you think of her.? — just as I said, 
eh ? ” and again he punched his successor’s ribs 
as if to give emphasis to the question. 

“Precisely, perfectly charming.” 

“ Well she’s yours. Is that a bargain 1 ” and he 
proffered his hand. 

Job took it and said, “Certainly, provided always 
that the lady is willing.” 

“Willing.? — no fear about that. Don’t I know 
her.? She loves you already.” 

“ Indeed. How do you know .?” 

Catch a weazel asleep ! I heard her talking to her 
sister about you before I was out of bed this morn- 
ing, and Sarah was saying what a nice young fellow 
and how like poor Steve you were, and Betty said, 

‘ He’s as handsome as he can be.’ There ! But you 
aren’t the only man who wants her, there’s a young 
fellow nearly crazy about her. He was here seeing 
her last night, and threatening suicide if she 
wouldn’t have him, and — mind you — ten to one but 
she’d had him if it hadn’t been for you. He’s to come 
for his answer to-day, so sail in and tell her before 
he gets here. And the strangest thing I ever knew 
of happened since you were here, too. You re- 
member my telling you about my daughter as was 
divorced .? Well, who should come in to the bar 
last night about seven o’clock but Sam Shuffles her 
old husband, wanting to marry her over again. 
Well, sir, do you know that they froze to each other 
like lovers after a while, and a spell of crying, and 
they’re to be married at the Methodist Church, 
where they were married before, sometime to-mor- 
row or the next day. Now I advise you to g-o in, 
and be married at the same time. It’ll just suit 
you, eh? ” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


- 225 

*'A11 nght ; anything to please you. Fm of a 
very obliging disposition.’' 

“Then come along with me into the kitchen, 
and we’ll introduce the subject. Be sure you’re 
right, and then go ahead.” 

Betty was in the kitchen alone, busy about many 
things, and especially so with her own thoughts. 

“Here he is again,” exclaimed Mr. Gambles as 
he entered with the new proprietor, “and the busi- 
ness is all settled. He’s paid the money and given 
the mortgage, and now he’s boss. I’ve quit. And 
all he wants to know, Betty, is if you’re ready to 
take him for better or worse } ” 

‘ ‘ Why, father ! ” 

“Excuse me, Mr. Gumbles, that inquiry ought 
to be made by me as the party directly interested 
in the reply,” observed Job. 

Then turning to Betty, and producing a small 
neatly folded cotton pocket-handkerchief which 
he proceeded to open — revealing faded gold fish 
printed on one side of it — he said, “do you re- 
member this } ” and, after shaking out its folds, 
held it before her. 

It was the identical child’s handkerchief she had 
given him, and which he had carefully preserved 
from that day to this. 

“Oh, yes ! ” she answered. “And so you have 
kept it all this time? ” 

“Of course. How could I have done anything 
else, when the fair giver was before my mind’s eye 
all the time, and had left one of Cupid’s darts in my 
heart ? ” 

Mr. Gumbles gave way to one of his most explo- 
sive laughs, and then exclaimed : “That settles 
the business ! There’s no getting around that 
handkerchief and Cupid’s darts, Betty ! Take him 
while he’s in the humor. What do you say to that ? 
Now’s your time for yes or no, Betty 1 ” 


226 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

Job, again turning to her, with laughing eyes, 
and replacing the handkerchief in his pocket, said : 
“Are you willing to s^xyjyes to that question now 
that I put it, or would you rather I wouldn’t ask it 
at all ? I appear before you under the disadvan- 
tage of one who has had no opportunity, so far, for 
courtship, and I think a man ought to woo and 
win the woman he wishes to marry before offering 
himself to her if he wants to make sure of being 
accepted ; but if in this case, under the peculiar 
circumstances, you are willing to give me your 
hand without the usual preliminary of courtship, 
you may rely on it I sha’n’t value it the less on that 
account,” and as he concluded he held his hand to- 
wards her, and she timidly extended her own till 
the smaller hand was warmly clasped in the larger, 
and their eyes met in a loving glance. 

Yes and no are very easily said, but before they 
are said one should think a long time. In this 
case, however, there was little delay, for the maiden 
was willing. 

“Is it a trade.?” asked her father in a manner 
entirely devoid of tender sentiment as if it was a mere 
bargain and sale that he was anxious to conclude, 
which caused Betty to pout her lips a little in par- 
donable disgust. 

“Will you have me, and make me happy?” 
asked Job in a gentle and winning way, and evi- 
dently really meaning what he said. “ If you will 
take my word for it, I shall be the best husband in 
the world and make you supremely happy. I 
know there’s a proverb that says, ‘Marry in haste 
and repent at leisure,’ but that will never apply 
to us. We were born for each other, I can see, and 
with me it was a case of love at first sight. Say 
you will, my charmer, do.” 

“I’ll do whatever you wish,” she answered 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE^ 


227 


after some hesitation and embarrassment, if you’ll 
promise to make me a good husband.” 

‘‘Then you are mine, Betty dear, for what more 
than that could a woman say } I will indeed make 
you the best and most devoted of husbands. Give 
me a kiss to seal the contract,” and she complied, 
not boldly, but modestly and with a blush, as a 
coyish maiden naturally would, and in innocence 
and sincerity surrendered her heart to his keeping. 

“Now,” said he, “ Tm the happiest man alive, 
and I wouldn’t change places with any one in all 
creation — pasha, sultan, president or king — and I 
accept the sacred jewel bestowed upon me as a 
prize none the less to be valued because it has 
been easily won.” 

“ Oh ! How very sweet ! ” remarked Betty, with 
a smile, in acknowledgment of the compliment. 

“I tell him that you and Sarah had better get 
married together. He can do his courting after 
he’s married,” spoke Mr. Gumbles — who still re- 
mained in the kitchen — to his daughter. 

“ Father, I’m sure I haven’t anything to wear.” 

“You don’t need anything more than you have,” 
said Romeo to his Juliet. “ ‘ Nature unadorned’s 
adorned the most.’ ” 

‘ ‘ Why, hang me if that doesn’t sound like poetry, ” 
observed Gumbles. 

“That, sir, is from Shakespeare — the immortal 
Bard of Avon.” 

“Is it? I’ve heard of him somewheres before 
— a play-actor, wasn’t he? We’re down on play- 
actors and the stage in our church.” 

It was Balzac who said that if those who are the 
enemies of innocent amusements had the sanction 
of the world they would take away the spring and 
youth, the former from the year and the latter from 
human life — Si ceux, qui sont ennemis des diveriisse- 


228 ^ MA/?V£LLOC/S COINCIDENCE, 


ments honnetes, avaient la direction du monde ils 
voudraieni oier le priniemps et la jeunesse. 

“ Well, what do you think of the circus ? queried 
the younger man. 

‘'Oh, we don’t mind the circus, but theatres 
we’re principled against.” 

“ Well, that’s lucky, for I was brought up in Dan 
Bryce’s circus from the time I was nine years 
old. But don’t you know, Mr. Gumbles, that 
‘ All the world’s a stage, 

And all the men and women merely players ? 

They have their exits and their entrances ; 

And one man in his time plays many parts.’ ” 

“Oh, that’s your way of getting round it, is it, 
young man } If there is a hole to get out at any- 
where you’ll find it,” rejoined Mr. Gumbles. 

“I ran away from home in Newark,’’ resumed 
the lover, “to join the circus. I was so fascinated 
with the show. And the folks at home never knew 
what had become of me for about eight years when 
my mother, who was on a visit to Peekskill, one 
day saw me performing there and recognized me, 
and there was a scene in the circus not down in 
the bill. She almost fainted with excitement over 
her discovery, and I was very sorry to see her 
feel so badly, for she thought I’d been drowned in 
the Passaic River at the time I disappeared. She 
wanted me to leave the circus right away, but I’d 
promised to serve ten years, so I stayed on for 
about a year and a half after that, and then with 
the money I’d saved — after giving a thousand 
dollars out of it to her — I bought a first class — A 
number i — four horse peddler’s turnout, and went 
— driving myself — on the road, mostly in Connecti- 
cut, selling Yankee Notions, and dry goods, and took 
my little stepbrother Joe along with me. I stuck 
at that and astonished the natives — for nothing 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


229 

like my wagon had ever been seen before in those 
parts — for over a year, and then sold out, and 
hearing of a lot of cattle for the New York market 
I turned drover, but I didn’t like droving much — 
though I can turn my hand to ’most anything — • 
so when I got here I began trading in cattle, and 
now another turn of the wheel of fortune makes 
me landlord of the Boars Head, and I’ve only just 
turned twenty-one. Did you never hear of Young 
Ingojnar in Dan Bryce’s circus } Why, I was con- 
sidered the best rider in the troupe, and the best 
acrobat, too, and wherever the circus went I 
divided the honors with the lion in the menagerie. 
I’ve traveled over every state in the Union, and 
done more spouting in the ring than any man 
except the clown, and whenever the clown was 
sick I took his place. I was a high old boy in 
those days, and what I don’t know — at least about 
a circus — isn’t worth knowing. Why, in some things 
there w’asn’t a man in the troupe that could hold 
a candle to me. There’s nothing like a circus 
for sharpening a boy’s wits. I hadn’t had much 
schooling — I was so young — when I joined the 
circus, but I studied school books that I bought 
whenever 1 had the chance, and Dan Bryce never 
tired of teaching me himself, and getting others to 
teach me who knew more than he did, and I read 
Shakespeare all through several times, and spouted 
Shakespeare in the ring, and committed Hamlet’s 
Soliloquy and a host of other passages to memory, 
and tried to ‘ find tongues in trees, books in the 
running brooks, sermons in stones and good in 
everything.’ What I most prided myself on was 
learning to speak English correctly, for, as I said, 
I had a good deal of talking to do, and I studied 
grammar so hard that before I left the circus — and 
they were sorry to have me leave — there wasn’t a 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


230 

man in it, I guess, who didn’t make more mistakes 
than I did when he set his tongue to work. I 
picked up knowledge, I can tell you, as fast as a 
hen does corn, and if I don’t make my mark some 
day I’m not Young Ingomar, or Job Fenwick, as 
you choose to call me. This is a free country 
for white men, and a great country, Mr. Gumbles, 
and the Presidency of the United States is open 
to every boy born in it, and as ‘ the surest way to 
reach a mark is to aim beyond it’ I mean to aim 
high, but stoop to conquer as often as necessary, 
and if I can’t always get my bread buttered I’ll 
take it dry and bide my time.” 

“Why, there’s more in you than I thought for, 
young man,” remarked Mr. Gumbles. “You talk 
like a book, and know ’most everything. You’ll 
do for the Boar’s Head, I bet. You’ve an old head 
on young shoulders, you have, and you’ll cut your 
way through the world like a knife through a 
cheese. ” 

“Just so, Mr. Gumbles. ^You tickle me, and 
I’ll tickle you.’” 

“You may well be proud of him, Betty,” he 
continued, turning to his daughter. 

“Yes, I am,” she replied. 

“And you, young man, ought to be proud of 
her too, for she’s as good as good can be, and 
you’ve wormed yourself into her heart like a screw 
into a cork. What do you think of her ” 

“ Think I of course think everything of her. 
But 

‘ To guard a title that was rich before, 

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, 

To throw a perfume on the violet. 

To smooth the ice, or add another hue 
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light 
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, 

Is wasteful and ridiculous excess,’ 

and I’ll not attempt it.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


231 

At this juncture, while Mr. Gumbles was gam- 
boling’ with delight at this exquisite compliment 
to his daughter, in came the dejected and re- 
jected Harry Birdseed for Betty’s ultimatum. 

Mr. Gumbles was not wrong in his estimate of 
Job, for it might have been said of him, in the 
language of Livy applied to Cato Major, that he 
displayed so much strength both of body and 
mind that in whatever place or position he might 
have been born it was evident he would be the 
architect of his own fortune. — In illo viro ianium 
rohur et corporis ei animi fuit ut, quocunque loco 
natus ess el, foriunam sihi faciurus videretur. To 
this it may be added that the good or bad fortune 
of men depends as much on their own disposition 
as on chance, and their happiness does not lie in 
the absence but in the mastery of their passions. 

As to Job, he blended a little folly with his 
worldly plans, as if following the precept of Horace 
to mix short follies with wise counsels — misce 
stultiiiam consiliis hrevem. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

As Harry Birdseed entered the kitchen of the 
Boar s Head on the occasion last referred to, Mr. 
Gumbles, turning to Ingomar said in a loud and 
demonstrative whisper, “ He doesn’t know enough 
to go in when it rains,” at the same time giving 
him a confidential dig in the ribs designed to still 
more effectually call his particular attention to 
that simple young man, whose maladresse was as 
conspicuous as his habit of making malapropos 
remarks. “Though he’s half a looney they think 
the world of him at home,” added Mr. Gumbles. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCLDENCE, 


232 

‘'I daresay,” replied Job. “Home-keeping 
youths have ever homely wits.” 

The suitor opened the conversation by saying : 
“Well Betty, have you thought it over.?” regard- 
less of the presence of her father and the man he 
had told him she was going to marry. We are 
never very j ust towards a rival, and the latter was in- 
clined to ridicule him, but men are never so ridic- 
ulous from the qualities that really belong to them 
as from those they pretend to have. 

“I didn’t need to think it over,” she answered ; 
“My mind was made up; you know what 1 told 
you.” 

“ Don’t ask her any more, Harry,” said Mr. Gum- 
bles, “she’s going to marry this gentleman here, 
the new landlord of the Boar’s Head, to-morrow.” 

“To-morrow ! you don’t say so ! Then what’s 
to become of me ? ” and he began to shed tears, 
for we are all elated or depressed according as 
fortune smiles or frowns upon us, fools included. 

“Say, stranger,” he said, turning to Job, “you 
don’t want to marry her as badly as I do. Let 
me have her, and I’ll do as much for you. Will 
you ? I knew her first ; I’ve known her ever since 
she was a child, and never thought of her marry- 
ing anybody else. But for your coming I would 
have married her, I know I could, and now she 
doesn’t care a straw about me. It’s hard luck. 
You’ve knocked me higher than a kite.” 

“My friend,” said the accepted suitor, “you 
talk like a man just escaped from a lunatic asylum. 
I wouldn’t hurt your feelings for the world, but I 
don’t like to see a man make a donkey of himself 
without telling him of it, so that he may see the 
error of his ways. My advice to you is to go 
home, and sleep off this fitful fever of yours. A 
little reflection will convince you that you are better 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


m 


off without a girl who doesn’t want to marry you 
than you would be with her. Don’t waste your 
sweetness on the desert air, nor squander your 
young affections in this way, but be a man.” 

“ That means, I suppose, that you want to marry 
her yourself.'’ ” 

“ I most certainly do mean to marry her myself. 
You may rest assured of that.” 

“Then what am I to do? I knew her first — 
first come first served, I say. ” 

“You should have thought of making hay while 
the sun shone, a long time ago, and possibly you 
might in that case have been more successful in 
your suit. ” 

“ Tm rowed up Salt River! Tm euchred I I 
never thought of such a thing as her marrying 
like this, and then to be told Tm no better than a 
lunatic, ah! it shard.” 

“It’s very foolish of you to be going on in this 
way I’m sure,” said Betty. “We can be as good 
friends after Tm married as we ever were.” 

“Yes, but Td have nothing to hope for, and I’d 
set my heart on you.” 

“Is this the first time you’ve been crossed in 
love, that you know so little how to bear the 
frowns of fortune ? ” asked Job. 

“Yes, and it’ll be the last time too. It’s all very 
well for you to crow ; let those laugh as win — but 
this is no laughing matter with me.” 

“There are plenty of other girls in the world,” 
observed Job. “Why not fall in love with one of 
them to console yourself for your present disap- 
pointment? It’s the best remedy I can prescribe. 
‘Like cures like,’ you know.” 

“That’s what I wanted you to do. Let me have 
her, and you take somebody else.” 

This practical reversal of the argument, this in- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


nocent turning of the tables upon his rival, pro- 
voked laughter from both the male auditors, and 
brought a smile to the face of Betty. 

At this stage Mr. Gumbles went towards the bar, 
saying “Harry I want to speak to you,'’ and the 
latter followed. 

‘ ‘ Lo(^ here, ” said the retiring landlord, ^ ^ they’re 
going to be married to-morrow, and they want the 
kitchen all to theirselves. You go hum, and get 
that nonsense out of your head. You can’t have 
her, and never could have had her, that’s more, so 
there’s no use talking, and I don’t like to see a 
friend of mine making a looney of himself. Go 
hum right away, and stay there till you’re better,” 
and acting on this very pointed suggestion the dis- 
appointed lover passed out of the Boar’s Head and 
disappeared. 

Not on the next day, but on the one following 
that at noon, it was arranged that the double wed- 
ding should take place, and when the time came 
the two couples left the Boar’s Head in carriages, 
for the Methodist Church in which the Gumbles’ 
family had a pew. Mr. Gumbles had a car- 
riage all to himself, deeming it due to his size, 
and necessary to his comfort, to have plenty of sea- 
room, as he nautically phrased it, and he was 
arrayed in a suit of black which he called his best 
Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. ” 

Neither of the brides seemed to have had any- 
thing new prepared for the occasion — the time 
allowed for getting ready being too brief— but both 
had evidently made the most of the resources at 
their command to enable then to present an ap- 
pearance befitting the occasion. They had put 
their heads together earnestly to accomplish the 
desired results, and they were more successful than 
it might have been supposed they would be under 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


the circumstances. They had dressed each other's 
hair in a manner becoming to their respective 
features, although not in what a coiffeur would have 
called the latest style of fashion, and each had 
acted as lady’s maid to her sister in the matter of 
costume, and doing so con amove had achieved a 
triumph of its kind, and made the best of the little 
at command. 

Both happened to have muslin dresses, and 
although these were the worse for wear, and orig- 
inally of the cheapest kind, they were as appropri- 
ate to the occasion as the white veils they had im- 
provised out of a few yards of illusion, and the 
white cotton gloves they had washed for the event, 
while the few lilies of the valley that had been 
brought to them by Mr. Shuffles, took the place of 
bonnets, orange blossonis, or a most elaborate 
coiffure, admirably. 

Betty’s face was radiant with pleasure, and her 
dark expressive eyes sparkled with the gladness 
which seemed to be bubbling in her heart, but 
Sarah’s worn and angular features betrayed no joy- 
ous emotion, no girlish delight. They were those 
of a practical woman of thirty-three, with a serious 
purpose in view — of one who was about to do 
again that which she had done once before only to 
regret it, and who knew and felt that she was run- 
ning the risk of repeating the sad experience ; but 
there was a settled determination in her look and 
manner to do this thing regardless of consequences, 
because she thought it the best she could do in her 
situation. 

“I haven’t a particle of hesitation now about 
marrying him again,” she said to her sister, “for 
if the worst happens, we can only be divorced a 
second time, and then I sha’n’t be any worse off 
than I was before, and if he should turn out as he 


2^6 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

says he will, and as I hope and trust he may, 

I shall be much happier than I have been, and it 
will be a good thing for us both. ‘Them’s my 
sentiments’, as Uncle Joe used to say, but I don’t 
feel as if I was going to be married a bit. It seems 
to me a woman can’t be married to the same man 
more than once, and if she’s been divorced on 
earth, she hasn’t been in heaven.” 

“Oh, I feel as if I was going to be married ever 
so much,” replied Betty, “but perhaps if I was as 
old as you are, and had gone through all that you 
have, I should feel as you do. I’m glad we are 
both to be married in this way together, Sally,” 
and she kissed her. 

Sarah was about two inches shorter and consid- 
erably stouter than her sister, and had a round face, 
a sallow complexion and brown hair and eyes, but 
there was a family resemblance between the two 
which the most casual observer on seeing them to- 
gether would have remarked, and their love for each 
other was constant, while Sarah was almost a 
mother to Betty. 

Sam Shuffles was no more a festive-looking groom 
than Sarah was a beaming bride. He had very 
much the appearance of a man who felt that he had 
reason to be ashamed of himself, and who was en- 
gaged in the performance of a duty which he wished 
to accomplish as quickly and quietly as possible, as 
if it was something that he ought to have done long 
before, and that he didn’t like to be seen doing. 

He was dressed like his past and future father-in- 
law in a black frock coat, black trousers and waist- 
coat, and blatk necktie, while his general aspect 
was suggestive of an undertaker or the chief 
mourner at a funeral. He was a very lean, bony, 
narrow-shouldered, flat-chested, slovenly-looking 
and awkward man of about five feet eleven, and 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


237 

verging on forty years, with a slouching manner, 
a slight stoop, long gray eyes and superfluously 
long limbs, a long, thin scraggy neck, a long pointed 
nose, a long sandy face, long reddish hair and a 
long beard, and he had the bad taste to shave his 
upper lip only and to chew tobacco. 

Ingomar presented a splendid contrast to him in 
point of physical appearance. A little over six feet 
in height, and massively broad across the shoulders, 
and with great girth of chest, he gave the impres- 
sion of unusual strength and vitality at a glance. 
His upper and lower limbs were straight and well 
proportioned and of fine muscular development, 
while his neck, which was of a little more than aver- 
age length and thickness, without being of the bull 
type, supported a head that was physically hand- 
some yet otherwise unremarkable. His handsome 
face — broad, fresh and shrewd — was full of geni- 
ality and sparkling humor, and marked by a rest- 
less expression which showed him to be a man of 
action rather than one of thought, of executive 
ability more than conceptive and reflective power, 
and there were signs of cunning and deception, of 
artifice and roguery, about his mouth and eyes, the 
former being rather hard but with full ripe lips, and 
the latter very dark, large, bright and devouring. 
He had a nearly square chin which gave a look of 
firmness to his features, and a medium dark com- 
plexion slightly warmed with color, while his hair, 
which he wore short, was a very dark brown with 
a wave in it. His teeth were white and regular, 
his nose an ornament to his countenance, his ears 
small for his size, and his forehead broad but neither 
high nor highly intellectual looking, his eyebrows 
thick and well arched, and what little hair grew on 
his face he shaved off. He had increased both in 
height and in breadth, and still more in adipose 


238 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

tissue, since leaving the circus, as was only natural 
at his time of life, and the change he had under- 
gone in point of development since his appearance 
at Peekskill on the occasion described was con- 
spicuous. The youth had emerged from his ado- 
lescent state into manhood, and he had undergone 
a corresponding physical improvement, although 
he was entirely too heavy for the performances he 
had been accustomed to in the ring, and would have 
had to go into training to reduce his weight before 
he could have resumed them, but his movements 
were as easy, graceful and elastic as ever. 


CHAPTER XXXVL 

Ingomar and his bride were in the first of the car- 
riages that arrived at the church, and as they walked 
up the central aisle to the altar with the other 
couple following not far behind them, and Mr. 
Gambles bringing up the rear they were made un- 
pleasantly aware of the presence of Harry Birdseed 
in one of the pews by his leaning over and accost- 
ing them as they passed him with tears in his eyes. 
What he said was, ‘‘Betty, Betty, see here ! Take 
me instead but she only cast a reproving look at 
him and continued on her way, while the groom 
smiled sardonically and whispered, “What a loon 
he is ! 

Gumbles darted a savage look of reproach at him 
as he went by and said, “Sit down! Are you 
crazy ? ” 

He little suspected that Harry Birdseed was at 
that moment meditating a revenge as fatal as that 
of Polyphemus the Cyclop, who, as Ovid tells us, 
was so jealous of his rival Acis for being beloved 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


by Galatea, that he crushed him under a huge rock. 
Not being a Cyclop, however, Harry Birdseed se- 
lected a less Cyclopean instrument, but the spirit of 
evil had taken possession of him, and what an evil 
heart conceives an evil head executes. Mala menSj 
malus animus. 

The wedding ceremony proceeded without inter- 
ruption until the officiating clergyman in marrying 
Betty asked, “Who giveth this woman in marriage 
to this man ’’ 

Then, as Mr. Gumbles moved forward to take 
her hand, Harry Birdseed — who had been seated — 
rose excitedly with a revolver in his hand, and aim- 
ing it at Ingomar, fired on the instant. So sud- 
denly w'as this done it was not till the report of the 
weapon startled everybody in the church that any 
of those at the altar became aware of their danger. 

Ingomar instinctively felt when he heard the 
report that the shot was fired at him, and at the 
same moment he heard a bullet whiz past him. 
He turned quickly round only to hear another re- 
port, and the sound of another bullet striking the 
altar railing. A panic seized upon all in the church. 
The women screamed and hid themselves in the 
pews, and in the midst of the confusion a third shot 
was fired. The sexton fled into the street, and as 
many men as were near enough to the door to deem 
it safe to follow his example did so. The officiat- 
ing clergyman decamped with a celerity unbecom- 
ing the dignity of his calling into the vestry, and 
called upon those at the altar to come after him. 
There was accordingly a rush in that direction, 
Ingomar leading his bride by the hand, but Sam 
Shuffles running away from his in his extreme haste 
to beat a retreat, and Mr. Gumbles making frantic 
efforts to accelerate his own speed. 

The moment the brides had escaped into the 


240 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

vestry, however, Ingomar darted swiftly away, 
and almost in an instant had passed down the 
centre aisle, and pouncing like a hawk upon a 
sparrow on the would-be assassin, wrenched, after 
a brief struggle, the revolver from his hand, and 
pinioned him against the side of the pew, but not 
before he had fired a fourth shot, which struck the 
ceiling. 

“Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” said he, in a 
cowardly, whining tone. 

“No,” was the reply, “I’ll hand you over to a 
policeman, but you deserve just enough hanging 
to keep you from shooting again. Come along 
here ! ” and taking him by the collar, he dragged 
him out of the pew, and down the aisle to the church 
door, where he was met by a policeman for whom 
the sexton had gone in search after running out of 
the church. 

To him he surrendered his prisoner, who by this 
time was crying bitterly, and the officer took him 
away to the station-house, while Ingomar returned 
to the altar, to find the clergyman and the rest of 
the wedding party awaiting him, in a state of trepi- 
dation and apprehension for his safety, in the vicin- 
ity of the vestry door. Well might Virgil have 
written, Improhe amor ! quid non mortalia pectora 
cogis — O wretched love, to what excesses dost 
thou not impel the breast of which thou hast 
taken possession ! 

The news of the shooting in the church had spread 
through the immediate neighborhood, and a pro- 
miscuous crowd swept into the building, moved by 
curiosity. 

“Don’t be alarmed,” said Ingomar, as he rejoined 
his bride, “ a policeman has taken him away, and 
now we’ll go on with the ceremony. ” 

“Oh 1 how brave of you to do what you did ! ” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 24 i 

exclaimed Betty. “Weren't you afraid? Oh! 
look at the hole in your sleeve, and here's another," 
— pointing to another bullet hole in the skirt of his 
coat. — “What a narrow escape you’ve had 1 It’s 
dreadful to think of. I never thought that horrid, 
foolish Harry Birdseed would do such a wicked 
thing as to try to murder us. I’m so glad you 
escaped. " 

Job was not before aware that a couple of bullets 
had passed through his clothing, for in the excite- 
ment of the moment he had failed to observe the 
significant apertures they had left, and he congrat- 
ulated himself, and was congratulated all round, 
on being unharmed. 

“Stay, what is this ?" he asked, stooping and 
touching the skirt of Betty’s dress, in which he also 
saw a bullet hole: — “Here’s where it went in, 
and ’’ — displaying another — “here’s where it came 
out. You too, Betty, had a narrow escape. We 
were evidently not here to be shot, but such shoot- 
ing as that is bad for clothes, though as far as our 
lives are concerned a miss is as good as a mile. 
It seems providential, doesn’t it ? ’’ 

“Yes," said Betty. “I believe it’s because we 
were in church that we weren’t killed." 

“ Well, it’s pretty safe to suppose so, at any rate. 
We’ll give the church credit for it, anyhow, and 
when I’m shot at again I hope it won’t be when I’m 
anywhere else, but remember this — 

“ ‘ Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just ; 

And he but naked, though wrapped up in steel, 

Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted ! ’ ” 


The agitated minister recovered his self-posses- 
sion sufficiently to finish the ceremony, and Ingo- 
mar and Betty, and Sam Shuffles and Sarah, were 
respectively pronounced man and wife. 


242 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

The former — after saying, ^‘Now, you’re my 
darling forever,"' — kissed his bride with character- 
istic unction, which prompted Sam Shuffles to be 
similarly demonstrative towards Mrs. Shuffles — 
to whom he remarked, ‘‘Now we’re one again, old 
gal \ ” — and the two couples — followed by Mr. 
Gumbles, who said, “ God bless you ! ” to both — 
made the best of their way through the now crowded 
church to the carriages at the door, and returned 
to the Boar’s Head, rejoicing over their narrow 
escape from sudden death, and their union in the 
bonds of matrimony ; and the last words of Betty 
to her husband before they alighted were: “I 
shall be so fond of you, I know I shall, and we’ll 
be so happy ! Yes, my dear, and I’ll say the same 
to you that you said to me when you kissed me so 
sweetly — ‘Now you’re my darling forever.’ 

“ ‘ Give me one kiss. I’ll give it thee again.1 

How nice it was of you to say so just then.” 

She had no dowry beyond what Plautus calls 
the true one, namely, virtue, modesty and desires 
kept in due subjection, but with these she was a 
prize. They had married in haste, but neither had 
any fear of repenting at leisure. 

Sarah and Samuel Shuffles were at the same time 
exchanging words of endearment elsewhere, for 
now that they were re-married they were like lovers 
who, having made it up again after quarrelling, are 
twice as good friends as they were before. 


aimarvellous coincidence. 


^43 


CHAPTER XXXVII. 

“ I FEEL now/’ said Mr. Gumbles after the wed* 
ding- party had returned to the Boar’s Head, “as it 
I’d got poor Stephen back again with me. You 
know it was because you were so like him I took 
such a fancy to you, Job? And Sarah noticed how 
like you were, too. Betty was too young to re- 
member much, and yet you see how she thought 
you was Steve.” 

“ How old was he when he died ? ” 

“Bless me, he didn’t die, leastways not as folks 
generally do. He and his poor mother were 
drowned at sea long ago when he wasn’t quite ten 
year old.” 

^ ‘ Indeed, Mr. Gumbles ? How did that happen ? ” 

“You may well ask, but it’s more’n I can tell 
you. I only know Martha — that’s my wife — had 
been feeling poorly for quite a while, with a bad 
cough, and the doctor said to her it would do her 
good if she could go South. Well, it so happened 
her brother David was captain of a vessel sailing 
from here to Cuba ; and he offered to take her and 
Steve — our only boy — there and back. Well, they 
went. I saw them off all right, but they never 
came back. The vessel was lost, with all hands, 
and I was left to paddle my canoe alone with the 
two girls. It was the saddest thing that could have 
happened.” 

“What was the name of the vessel, Mr. Gumbles, 
and when did she sail ? ” 


^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

It was the brig Commerce, and she left New 
York as long ago as December, 1836.’* 

“Why, Mr. Gumbles, you astonish me. I was 
on board that vessel on that very voyage ! ’’ 

“You were.? You must be joking?'’ 

“ No ; it’s a fact ! ” 

“ Then are you sure you’re not Steve Gumbles ? ” 

“Yes, but I think I can tell you where to find 
him ? ” 

“You can ? Why, is he still alive ? ” 

“ To the best of my knowledge and belief I will 
say yes ; ” and he then told him the story of the 
wreck of the Commerce from his own experience, 
and that of the Swallow from the narrative of the 
survivors, including all he knew of Alexander 
Livingston. “Now that I think of it,” he added, 
“Gumbles was the name of the boy’s mother.” 

Mr. Gumbles’ hair almost stood on end, and his 
eyes seemed to grow too large for their sockets as 
he listened to the startling and romantic tale. At 
its conclusion he drew a long breath, and grasping 
Job by the hand, said, “Take me to him ! ” allud- 
ing of course to his son, for men generally believe 
with willingness what they wish to be true. Fere 
lihenter homines id, quod volunt credunt. 

This interview took place while they were alone 
in the kitchen, Betty having gone upstairs to divest 
herself of some of her wedding finery, for it had 
been previously agreed that there should be no trip 
out of town, and that the newly married couple, 
in Job’s own words, should settle down to business 
at once. The other couple had driven direct from 
the church to a hotel preparatory to their depart- 
ure for the West. 

Betty rejoined them at this juncture, and her 
beaming, happy face changed its expression in- 
stantly as her bright eyes met those of her father, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


245 

and saw the look of amazement with which he and 
the groom were regarding each other. 

“What’s the matter?” she asked with a glance 
of apprehension. 

Betty,” said her father, much puzzled, con- 
founded and bewildered, your brother’s alive, 
and I’m afraid you’ve married him, for he” — point- 
ing to Job — “looks the picture of Stephen, and he 
says he was on board your uncle’s vessel the Com- 
merce when she was lost ! ” 

He had, of course, no such fear as he expressed, 
but as he was unable to comprehend the whole 
case this was his way of stating it, his natural 
tendency being towards exaggeration in serious as 
well as trifling matters. 

She did not utter a faint scream, and faint, as 
novelists sometimes make their heroines do under 
similar circumstances, but she exclaimed, “Oh! 
father! My husband my brother? Oh, no! Are 
you joking? ” 

Then she turned to Job and said, “Tell me, tell 
me, what does he mean ? You are not my brother, 
are you ? ” 

“By no means, but your father is very much 
astonished, and well he may be, to find that I, 
who look so like his son, was on board the Co 7 n- 
merce, Captain Jason Henderson ” — “ That was 
his name,” interrupted Mr. Gumbles — “ at the 
time,” continued Job, “she was lost in December, 
1836. The circumstance is very surprising, especi- 
ally in connection with others ; all the more so 
because if I’m not mistaken this very brother of 
yours has actually been mistaken for me by my 
own mother ! ” 

“ Gracious !” said Betty, we have thought he 
was dead ever since he and mother went to sea 
with uncle that time. Is he really alive as father 


246 ^ marvellous coincidence, 

“I suppose so, but I haven’t heard of him for 
two or three years,” replied Job. 

“Go on ; tell her all about him, and where he 
is,” said Mr. Gumbles, still greatly mystified. 

“Yes, oh, do ! ” entreated Betty, and Job there- 
upon told over again, and more in detail, the story 
of his own early escapade, as well as of the two 
wrecks ; and then of his mother’s strange discovery 
and mistaken identity of the other boy survivor 
of the Commerce, in Broadway, as told him by 
herself, and her subsequent discovery of himself 
in the circus ring. 

Both father and daughter naturally marvelled 
exceedingly. 

“That double discovery of hers,” said Job, “is 
the strangest, the funniest, the most improbable 
thing I ever heard of. But she honestly believed 
she had found me when she found the first boy. 
We are the two Dromios, or the Corsican Brothers. 
The coincidence is wonderful enough to astonish 
the natives.” 

“Yes, it beats everything I ever heard before all 
hollow,” said the' much astonished Gumbles. “I 
wouldn’t have believed it. But if Steve’s alive I 
want to see him. You’re sure not him, are 

you } ” 

“Why, are you such a donkey as not to know 
your own son .? Do you think I could have for- 
gotten you, and come home and married my own 
sister, if I’d been your son, even if it is a wise 
child that knows its own father? No, sir. I’m not 
such a looney as all that.” 

“ But you say the other boy’s forgot everything ? 
And it’s a wise father that knows his own son, you 
told me. Alexander Livingston, eh? his name is, 
living with Peter Livingston, Washington Square ? ” 
queried Mr. Gumbles. “When was it you saw him 
last?" 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE,) 247 

■''Not since the summer of 1844, when I took 
him and Mr. Peter Livingston to the circus in Tarry- 
town to see Dan Bryce, Orlando Mugg and Billy 
Buttons. He hardly remembered Orlando and 
Billy, but Mr. Livingston did well and shook hands 
with them and asked them why they hadn’t been 
to see him, as if they were old friends, and Dan 
told all about the wreck of the Com 7 nerce over 
again, and he and Mr. Livingston compared notes 
about the two wrecks and us two boys at a great 
rate, while I looked at Alexander and he looked at 
me as if we thought the one was the other, and 
vice versa, and didn’t know what to make of it. 
Mr. Livingston saw it was all true, what my 
mother and I had told him, and asked me to come 
and see Aleck whenever I came to New York, but 
I’ve- never been. Aleck, I guess, thought himself 
too fine a gentleman for me — a mere circus rider 
of poor but honest parents, while he was no end 
of a grandee, got up regardless of expense, and a 
student at Columbia College. One thing you may 
be sure of, Mr. Gumbles, if you go after him you’ll 
have Mrs. Livingston after you, for she swears by 
all the saints in the Calendar that he’s her son, just 
as my mother swore he was hers before she found 
me. What do you think of that, Mr. Gumbles } 
Wonders will never cease in this sublunary sphere.” 

“I’ll give it up,” said Mr. Gumbles. 

“ Let us go and find Stephen this very minute,” 
proposed Betty. 

Mr. Gumbles exclaimed, “Them’s my senti- 
ments,” and went for his hat, while Betty ran 
upstairs to put her bonnet on. 

“We’ll have a hack to make such a swell call as 
this ; and, Gumbles, you had better put on your best 
bib and tucker,” suggested Job. “We are going 
into fashionable society remember — going to break 


248 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

through the upoer crust and take the Upper Ten by- 
storm. " 

“Yes, and we’ll call for Sally to go with us on 
the way,” remarked Gumbles without a smile. 
“She remembers him as well as I do, being the 
oldest, and she’s as straight as a string when it 
comes to putting this and that together and reck- 
oning up things that would puzzle a Philadelphia 
lawyer. She can identify anybody, you bet.” 

Accordingly, very soon afterwards, the three 
drove off, and called for Mrs. Shuffles on their way 
to Washington Square. 

“Whatever has happened again?” she asked, 
upon being requested to accompany them, and the 
whole story had to be repeated to her in the pres- 
ence of the penitent Mr. Samuel Shuffles, who ejac- 
ulated at its conclusion : “I knew Stephen as well 
as anybody. I’ll go along with you. It’s nuts for 
me, a thing of this sort.” 

“Nuts for you?” remarked Mr. Gumbles, half 
indignantly. “Then what do you think it is for 
me ? Shuffles, don’t be unfeeling ; ” and Shuffles 
avoided further argument by climbing up to a seat 
on the box beside the driver, when away went the 
carriage, rattling over the stones till it stopped in 
front of Mr. Livingston’s residence. 

A more motley and unfashionable party had 
never before made a call at a fashionable house, 
and Job, with a keen perception of the ludicrous, 
remarked facetiously: “This is doing the swell 
thing with a vengeance. It is really immense, and 
quite romantic. It is no skim-de-la-skim affair. 
We are going straight into the creme de la creme of 
New York society at one plunge. Gumbles, pull 
down your vest ! ” Gumbles did so. He wished 
to appear at his best on this occasion, and half 
regretted that he was not able to put on more style, 


A MAkVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


249 


as he called it, and be a swell among the swells 
for the time being, especially as Steve was one of 
them. 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

As the rusty carriage rattled up to the door of 
the house with such speed as to produce an amount 
of noise suggestive of an approaching fire engine, 
Mr. and Mrs. Livingston and Madeline were at- 
tracted to the window of their sitting-room, and 
they were of course surprised to see an unusual 
assortment of visitors preparing in great haste to 
make a descent, like Goths and Vandals, upon the 
premises. 

Sam Shuffles was taking a flying leap off the box 
at the same time that Mr. Jeremy Gumbles was 
struggling head first out of the body of the carriage, 
only to be followed by Job and the brides in their 
wedding dresses. 

“Who can these people be, I wonder.? ” queried 
]\Ir. Livingston, as they all made a rush for the 
door and rang the bell with a force that aroused 
the ire of the fat old man servant with the red face 
and white hair. 

“I am sure I don't know," was Mrs. Living- 
ton’s reply. “I never saw any of them before." 

“Nor I," observed Madeline, by this time an 
elegant woman of twenty-two, who had developed 
into a more perfect beauty than even her mother 
had been in her day. “What a funny-looking fat 
old man one of them is ! " 

When on opening the door the servant and Mr. 
Gumbles stood face to face, they looked at each 
other as if very much surprised to see two such fat 


250 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


old men with red faces and white hair so close 
together in that particular place. 

Job was the first to speak, and, in answer to his 
inquiry for Mr. Peter Livingston, he was asked 
whether he had business with that gentleman, and 
on answering in the affirmative he was further 
asked to name it, whereupon he replied, to the as- 
tonishment of the questioner : “ See here, old man, 
you want to know too much, but, if it will be the 
least satisfaction to you. I’ll tell you my business 
is private and confidential. For further particulars 
see small bills. Tell Mr. Li\fingston Job Fenwick 
wants to see him. He will remember me no 
doubt.” 

The old man turned up the whites of his eyes at 
him in a startled way when he mentioned his name, 
for Hephzibah’s story was familiar to him, and he 
wondered what this fresh invasion of the house in 
such force by the adherents of Job signified. He 
regarded them as so many Goths and Vandals 
whose coming was a disturbance of the peace of a 
quiet family and something like a menace to its 
respectability. 

“Is my son Stephen here?” asked Mr. Gumbles 
unable to restrain his impatience any longer, and 
overcoming the awe which the appearance of the 
mansion had at first inspired. 

The servant turned his eyes upon him like dark 
lanterns, and with a frown said, “No; no such 
person lives here.” 

“Alexander Livingston he means!” remarked 
Job. “ Is he here still ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“And at home ?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then I’d like to see him, too, on very particu- 
lar business.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 251 

‘^Do these other persons want to send their 
cards ? ” asked the servant. 

“Have you any cards about you?” queried 
Job of his followers with a quizzical smile. 

“No,” replied Mr. Gambles, speaking for him- 
self and daughters, “thank the Lord we have no 
cards. I don’t know how to play them, and I 
don’t want to know. I wouldn’t have such things 
in my house. They’re the devil’s playthings.” 

“ Hold up your horses ! ” interrupted Job. “ He 
means your visiting cards. You ought to have 
brought along a shingle apiece with your name 
chalked on it for this respectable old gent with the 
white choker to take upstairs. You’re not up in 
etiquette, that’s certain.” 

“Tell the old man, I mean Mr. Peter Living- 
ston,” continued Job, addressing the servant, “that 
the rest of the folks haven’t a ‘ kerd ’ but that this 
stout gentleman is Mr. Jeremy Gumbles, of New 
York, and this thin one is Mr. Samuel Shuffles 
from the far West. ” 

Instead of asking them into the parlor, the ser- 
vant invited them to take seats in the hall, after 
seriously considering the propriety of leaving them 
to wait outside on the steps, while he ascended the 
stairs to tell Mr. Livingston what manner of men 
had called to see him. 

It was full five minutes before he returned, and 
then he asked them into the parlor, and after the 
lapse of another five minutes not only Mr. Living- 
ston, but Mrs. Livingston, Alexander and Madeline, 
entered the room in Indian file. 

Job rose and said, “ I suppose you hardly re- 
member me, Mr. Livingston ? ” 

“Oh, yes, -I do,” he replied, recognizing him at 
once, although he had failed to do so from the 
window, not having seen his face, and while ex- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


255 

tending his hand, he turned to his adopted son and 
said, “ Alexander, don’t you ? 

“ Certainly I do ! ” was Alexander’s reply as he, 
too, gave his hand to Job. 

“ And don’t you remember me, Stephen ? ” asked 
Mr. Gumbles, advancing towards him, and speak- 
ing with unusual gravity. “ Don’t you remember 
your father Jeremy Gumbles, and the Bull’s Head, 
and the Boar’s Head too? and don’t you remember 
your sister Sally here” — pointing her out — “ aiid 
yoiir sister Betty ? ” pointing to her in turn. 

“Gracious!” exclaimed Mrs. Livingston to 
Madeline. “Somebody else’s son is missing, and 
we are to have another mistake — another excite- 
ment ! What will happen next, I wonder ? ” 

“It all comes back to me like a dream,” said 
Alexander, grasping the hand of Mr. Gumbles with 
great fervor, while hi^ lips almost quivered with 
emotion, and his face grew pallid with suppressed 
excitement. “I remember you ; I remember my 
two sisters — one grown up and the other a young 
girl. I used to call the eldest Sally and the young- 
est Betty, and I was called Steve. I had no brother, 
but I had a mother. I don’t remember her name, 
but if I heard it I think it would come back to me. 
Stop, it comes to me ; it was Martha. I went to 
sea with her in my uncle’s ship the Commerce, but I 
cannot recall his name at the moment. We were 
wrecked, and I took all the care I could of my 
mother on the rocks till she died' for want of food 
and water, after all the men who had been left with 
us had died a horrible death in the same way.” 
He seemed to speak with introverted eyes almost 
like one in a trance. 

“ Whatever is Aleck talking in that way for? Is 
he going out of his mind ? asked Mrs. Livingston 
of her husband, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


^53 

*'No, my dear; I really believe we have found 
out who he is at last/' 

“ It’s Steve ! It’s Steve ! I know it is ! ” cried 
Sarah, rushing upon and embracing him after try- 
ing to refrain from so doing as long as she could. 

“Oh ! Steve, don’t you remember me?” asked 
Betty with a tear of welcome glistening like a dew- 
drop in each eye as she followed her sister in 
throwing herself upon his manly breast. 

He treated them both affectionately. 

“ Are you sure he is your brother?” asked Mr. 
Livingston of the two women. 

“Oh, yes, quite sure,” answered Betty. 

“ That I am, sir. He is piy brother Stephen, and 
we thought he’d been drowned with my mother 
and my uncle,” answered Sarah. 

Then stepped forward Mr. Samuel Shuffles, who 
said : “That’s so. I guess I remember him ever 
since he was a little fellow so high” — indicating 
very short stature with his hand — “ and I’m as sar- 
tain he’s Stephen Gumbles as I am that I stand 
here. Steve, don’t you kinder remember me — Sam 
Shuffles ? ” 

“Yes, your name and your face are familiar,” 
answered Alexander. 

“ I thought so. Give us your fist, Steve 1 ” 

Mr. Gumbles then became more demonstrative, 
and assured Alexander that he was his son Stephen, 
and begged him to acknowledge that he was his 
father, which Alexander did, and then Mr. Gumbles 
proceeded to throw his arms round him in a most 
embarrassing manner. 

“Do you say he is your father, Alexanf<^er ? ” 
asked Mrs. Livingston, with tears in her eyeo. 

“Ido,” he answered, “but I shall love you none 
the less. Believe me I shall not, and never son 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


254 

loved mother more than I love you, my mother 
dear ! ’’ 

I can be a mother to you only in name if you 
are not my son, but we can love each other not- 
withstanding. I am glad, Alexander, to hear you 
speak as you do, still I am sorry, very sorry, that 
this has occurred,’' and her mental distress was 
evident as she wiped away her tears. 

“But for the apparent sincerity of all concerned, 
and this positive identification of my adopted son 
as the son of this Mr. Grumbles,” said Mr. Living- 
ston, in a tone of authority, ‘ ‘ I should have said that 
this sort of thing was becoming monotonous and 
absurd. This is the second time he has been iden- 
tified, but not as the same individual. He was 
identified at first as Job Fenwick by Job Fenwick’s 
mother, and yet she afterwards discovered Job 
Fenwick elsewhere and came back to inform us of 
her mistake and produce the real Job. Now he is 
identified as Stephen Gambles by Stephen Gambles’ 
father, but how do I know that my experience with 
the mother of Job Fenwick will not be repeated, 
and you, Mr. Gambles, hereafter discover you were 
mistaken and return with the real Stephen ? 

“I put these questions notwithstanding I have 
reason to believe from the evidence of my senses 
that this is not a case of mistaken identity as the 
other was. One important difference between the 
two is that in the previous instance he failed in any 
way to recognize his alleged mother, stepfather or 
stepbrother, and their appearance had no effect in 
restoring the recollection of those he had lost, while 
in the present one the sudden and unexpected ap- 
pearance of these persons has restored his memory 
of things antecedent to the wreck, so long dormant, 
and he recognizes his father, his sisters and a fourth 
person. Now medical men have said that his 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


255 

memory might be restored by his coming in con- 
tact with the persons and things familiar to him 
before he lost it, and as this has actually occurred, 
greatly to my surprise, within the last few minutes, 
the inference is clear. The son has found his 
father. 

“It is due to me, however, to ask for an expla- 
nation of the circumstances surrounding this fresh 
romance, and I should like to hear from Mr. 
Gambles the history of this son whom he now iden- 
tifies, and the reasons which led him and his family 
to come here.” 

“ Mr. Gambles, you will please rise and explain ! ” 
said Job, and he accordingly repeated the statement 
he had previously made to the latter, in which he 
was corroborated by his daughters and Mr. Shuffles. 

“This is more remarkable than the Job Fen- 
wick case ! ” was the comment of Mr. Livingston. 
“Alexander, you are a hero of romance ! ” 

Then Job narrated in his lively, rattling style how 
he was the means of bringing about the discovery, 
upon which Alexander advanced to him and said : 

‘ I thank you for this, for although you have not been 
instrumental in introducing me to a great name or 
heritage, you have made me re-acquainted with my 
own parentage, of which, though humble it be, I 
am no more ashamed now that I have arrived at 
man’s estate than I should be if I were not a grad- 
uate of Columbia College and had never known the 
advantages of an elegant home like this, for which 
Mr. and Mrs. Livingston have equal claims on my 
love and gratitude. 

“ ‘ Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 

Act well your part, there all the honor lies. ’ 

“I am glad to have afforded my father, whom I 
honor, and my sisters, whom I love and respect, the 


256 -4 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

satisfaction of knowing that my fate was not such 
as they had supposed, while I return thanks to God 
for mysteriously restoring to me, through them, the 
memory of which I had been deprived. This, in- 
deed, is a blessing for which I scarcely hoped.” 

As Job and Alexander stood face to face it was 
apparent that their resemblance to each other had 
diminished materially since their meeting at Orange, 
and it seemed difficult to account for the mistake 
in identity that had occurred. They had apparently 
been growing more and more unlike with the de- 
velopment of their respective characters under the 
entirely different kind of lives they led, and educa- 
tion and habit had operated to give each a marked 
and separate individuality which was as distinct as 
the noses on their respective faces. 

The preponderance of flesh, too, on the part of 
Alexander was much greater than at the time of 
their previous meeting, and this, combined with 
shorter stature, gave him an entirely different look 
from Job. As boys of ten, according to all the 
evidence, they were remarkably alike in appear- 
ance, but as men they were not in the slightest 
danger of being mistaken for each other. It must 
be remembered, however, that it was as boys of 
that age they were last seen at home, and thus the 
mistake of Hephzibah, and the first false impression 
of Joshua Besse with regard to Alexander, and that 
of Betty, with regard to Job as well as his resem- 
blance to the former remarked by Mr. Gumbles and 
Sarah, can be reasonably accounted for. 

Mr. Livingston, after consulting a few moments 
with his adopted son, said : “Alexander and I would 
like to drive back with you to the Boar’s Head. 
He wants to go over the old house again.” 

“ We’ll be glad to have him come and you, too,” 
replied Mr. Gumbles. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


257 


“And may I go with you, papa?’' asked Made- 
line. 

“I see no objection, my dear, if you wish to. 
Florence, will you ? ” 

“I may as well as you are all going,” was Mrs. 
Livingston’s response, and the clarence having been 
ordered, the four members of the Livingston house- 
hold entered it, and followed that containing the 
Gumbles family till it reached the Boar’s Plead. 

Alexander, with the rest of the party, went over 
every part of his old home, the home in which he 
was born, and the sight of which — coupled with 
suggestions from his father and sisters — renewed his 
recollection of long forgotten scenes, persons and 
incidents with wonderful distinctness, all the more 
visibly perhaps because his memory of them had 
been so long dormant. 

“How could I have forgotten as I did?” he 
asked himself aloud. “What a freak of memory 
it was 1 Here all reminds me of my childhood and 
early boyhood, and of my poor mother who was 
lost where I was saved.” 

Mr. Gumbles told him about its being his sisters’ 
wedding day, and described the shooting scene in 
the church, and then added : 

“I’ve sold the tavern, Stephen, to my son-in-law 
here, Mr. Fenwick, and now I’m going to settle 
down at a quiet place — Lithgow — in Dutchess coun- 
ty, where I was born, but I hope, though you are a 
fine gentleman, Steve, you’ll come and see your 
old father, and drop in once in a while to see 
Betty, for Sally’s going out West again, so she won’t 
be handy.” 

After promising to do so, and assuring him of 
his filial and brotherly affection, Alexander parted 
tenderly from his father and sisters, and bidding 
Job and Mr. Shuffles good bye, re-entered the car- 


258 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE.. 

riage with Mr. and Mrs. Livingston and Madeline, 
and drove away. 

“Promise me, Alexander, you will never leave 
me, but call me mother still,'' said Mrs. Livingston, 
convinced at last, on their way homeward. 

She looked more worn and wrinkled than when 
she embarked in the Swallow on her last voyage to 
destruction, but the lines of beauty still lingered in 
her face, and its expression, which might have been 
likened to the perfume of a flower, was as sweet 
as ever, suggesting Moore’s lines — 

“ You may break, you may shatter, the vase if you will. 

But the scent of the roses will cling to it still.” 

“I will, my dear mother, I will!” he replied. 
“All this will make no difference with regard to 
my love for you, and may God bless you for having 
been such a good mother to a poor, motherless, 
shipwrecked boy I ” 

That you may be loved show yourself deserving 
of love, says Ovid, and to win regard merit it. Ut 
ameris amabilis esto. Alexander Livingston to this 
sentiment was always true, and he deserved well. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Not more than a year after the great gold dis- 
coveries of 1849 in California had thrown the people 
of the United States — and to some extent not only 
of all English-speaking countries but the civilized 
world — into a fever of excitement, a steamer from 
New York, crowded with passengers, arrived at 
Colon — aflat, swampy spot, since called Aspinwall 
— on the Isthmus of Panama. It was in the month 
of October, 1850, and as they disembarked it was 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


259 

noticeable that there was not one woman or girl 
among them all, and very few boys, and these only 
of an age sufficiently advanced to enable them to 
take care of and work for themselves. 

They were chiefly men . in the prime of life, 
although there were some delicate striplings just on 
the threshold of manhood, and others who had 
passed, or were verging on, threescore years, 
while two or three were silver-haired veterans of 
seventy or more. They seemed to represent all 
conditions of life, and all the States of the Union — 
with a sprinkling of foreigners — and they were all 
alike impelled by a common impulse, and had in 
view a common object — the acquisition of gold in 
California. 

They had abandoned their occupations, and — 
where they had such — their wives and children — 
who were unfitted to rough it in a new country — 
to join in the wild race for wealth in El Dorado, 
hoping to acquire it suddenly, and return speedily 
home laden with the coveted riches. They had 
brought with them mining tools and weapons of 
defense, and were armed with courage and enthu- 
siasm which defied obstacles, for the glittering 
bauble Gold inspired and allured them as they had 
never been before, and they longed to grasp the 
prize that seemed almost within their reach, and, 
in their eagerness to press forward, scarcely heeded 
the tropical scenery of the isthmus as on their way 
to Panama, there to embark for the Golden Gate — 
they journeyed by canoes down the Chagres River 
— a broad and swift current, in certain places in- 
fested with alligators, and winding between walls 
of foliage in which all the gorgeous growths of 
eternal summer were mingled in a vast and almost 
impenetrable mass where from the rank jungle 
of caves and gigantic lilies, and the thickets of 


26 o a marvellous coincidence^ 


strange shrubs — rich in blossom — that lined the 
water rose the trunks of the mango, the ceiba, the 
cocoa, the sycamore and the royal palm ; — where 
gigantic plants shaded the zapote and the gourd 
tree, and climbing parasites boa-constrictor-like 
curled their luxuriant fronds from stem to stem, 
winding themselves round mammoth trunks and 
hugging tender saplings, then flinging their long 
trailing branches to the earth, and there re-rooting 
themselves again only to throw out their giant 
arms, and clutch, perhaps, some withered stump, 
arraying it in a brilliant garb of their own green 
leaves and richly colored flowers, anon to throw 
out their delicate festoons to be shaken by every 
breeze till they again embraced : — where enormous 
blue creepers clung vampire-like to the larger 
trees, and gigantic^tree ferns shot their long slender 
stems through the dense underwood, capped by 
their gracefully spreading fronds that hung foun- 
tain-like in the air, while silver blossomed star 
flowers brightened the dark recesses of the forest, 
in which every curve of the river divulged new 
beauties, till the eye almost ached in exploring 
them : — where vista after vista of magnificent and 
tangled vegetation — backed by hills and mountains 
of bloom and vivid green — met the wanderer’s 
gaze, and won the tribute of his admiration. And 
among these lofty palms, these climbing plants of 
every description, these flowers of every hue flour- 
ishing in wild luxuriance — this tropical labyrinth 
— brilliantly plumaged humming-birds, parrots, 
macaws and paroquets flashed at intervals upon 
the view, while scarlet cardinals piped and whirred, 
and mocking-birds filled the woods with melody, 
and monkeys gamboled in the topmost branches 
of the trees, and chattered as they disported them- 
selves in the rays of the burning sun. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


261 


All this was, indeed, enchantingly beautiful, but 
the very essence of that beauty was the source of a 
malaria which fevered and vanquished many a 
luckless adventurer in the early days of California 
gold mining : when the success of “ the Argonauts 
of 1849 ’’spurred multitudes to emulate their prowess 
and move forward to the El Dorado, and well these 
hardy pioneers deserved all they won. 

The wearied travellers were glad when the gray 
and crumbling walls of the picturesque old city of 
Panama came in sight, its white houses glistening 
in irregular lines, and overlooked by a lofty hill 
covered with dense vegetation from which a light 
cap of morning mist had rolled down. The long 
stretch of unguarded rampart and projecting bastion 
at the water side presented a picture of dilapida- 
tion suggestive of olden time, when Panama was 
the key to the Indies and Spain was in the zenith 
of her glory ; when mailed knights — the chivalry 
of Castile — held tourney on its plains and at vesper 
hour dark-eyed Senoritas exchanged smiles from 
overhanging balconies with gay cavaliers as they 
curvetted their steeds along the street, and when 
solemn with swinging censer, headed grand 
processions in honor of favored saints amid the 
thunder of ordnance and the sound of music. 

In front of the city spread the glassy waters of 
the bay from which there rose here and there islets 
of surpassing beauty — monuments of tropical vege- 
tation pleasant as bouquets to the eye, and giving 
a look more of fairy-land than earth to the glowing 
picture, while the mighty Andes frowned over all, 
extending down the coast in the direction of rain- 
less Peru till lost in the distance. 

The vivid rays of the rising sun were flashing 
athwart the prospect, gilding the emerald foliage 
of the islands, and making the placid bay shine 


26 i A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


like molten metal, while bringing into bold relief 
the rugged irregularities of the mountains. The 
largest of the archipelago was Toboga, densely 
wooded and rising more than a thousand feet above 
the level of the bay, and to Panama what Capri is 
to Naples, while Flamingo, although much smaller, 
vied with it in beauty, and smaller still but not less 
lovely, were Perico, Taboguilla and Otoque — all 
grouped within sight of the city. 

Native huts, with high conical thatching, were 
scattered to the right of the city, shaded by grace- 
ful palms with spreading fronds, whose Indian 
occupants lounged, in listless ease, within or with- 
out, and felt clothing in their balmy climate so 
superfluous that they wore no more than they could 
help, which was very little, a girdle being gener- 
ally considered full dress. 

Among the first of the travelers referred to to reach 
the city was a tall, handsome young man, with 
a strong and pleasing voice and affable manners, 
who had amused his fellow-voyagers, since leav- 
ing New York, by singing comic and sentimental 
songs, cracking jokes, and telling funny stories 
and odd anecdotes, and who of course was, in con- 
sequence, a very popular individual among them. 

Entering, with some of his companions, an Amer- 
ican bar-room and restaurant newly established in 
the Calle de los Monjas — called by the Americans 
Main Street — he saw a tall, thin, sandy-red-haired, 
sickly-looking man, with whose face he seemed 
familiar, lounging in front of the counter. He 
looked hard at him for a moment, and then ex- 
claimed, “Sam Shuffles, by jingo!'' to which the 
other responded by asking, “Why, Fenwick, how 
are you? Who'd have thought of seeing you 
here ? " and the two men shook hands cordially. 

“I heard you were in California/’ remarked Job 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 263 

— for the newcomer was that individual — *‘How 
comes it that you've stopped half-way, and turned 
as yellow as a bamboo walking cane ? " 

“I’ve had a touch of the Isthmus fever, and been 
laid up for six weeks, but I’m going on to San 
Francisco by this steamer. Any news? How’s 
Steve, Gumbles and Betty ? Had she heard, do you 
know, from Sarah before you left ? ” 

“ Betty was all right when I left, and so was her 
brother when I last saw him. He’s Alexander Liv- 
ingston, and means to stick to that as I would do 
if I were in his place. Steve Gumbles isn’t to be 
compared with it ; it’s a horse of another color 
altogether, although — 

“ ‘ That which we call a rose 

By any other name would smell as sweet.’ 

Talking of Betty, I don’t think she’d heard from her 
sister for quite a while. You left her in Indian- 
apolis, didn’t you ? ” 

“Yes, she’s boarding there with my partner’s 
family while I’m away. Well, I see you’re bound, 
like the rest of us, for California. How’s the Boar’s 
Head getting on without you ? ” 

“ I’ve no more to do with that concern now than 
you have,” answered Job. “Between ourselves, 
I ‘ busted ’ up there — I lost every cent I had through 
trading in the cattle market, lending money to 
friends and giving credit, so that I was unable to 
run the machine, and had to quit. Though Solo- 
mon was wise and Samson was strong, neither of 
them could pay money if they hadn’t it. But 

“ ‘ Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head, ’ 

and I now feel that Tm on the right track for for- 
tune.” 


264 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

‘‘Shakespeare again, by Csesar ! ejaculated 
Shuffles. “You ought to go on the stage and 
bring down the gallery. The stage is the proper 
place for you, Job.” 

‘ ‘ I know that ; Tm on it now. ‘ All the world’s 
a stage, and all the men and women merely players. ’ 
‘Act well your part ; there all the honor lies.’ But 
to change the subject : whatever business I do in 
the future will be for cash. No more credit from 
Job Fenwick, for — 

“ ‘ To trust is to bust; 

To bust is hell ; 

No trust, no bust, no hell.’ ” 

Job then went on to tell Sam Shuffles more about 
his affairs, thus : 

“ I wanted old Gumbles to lend me some money, 
but he wouldn’t give me a dollar more than fifty, 
and to know the value of money a man must be 
obliged to borrow some. I wouldn’t ask my 
brother-in-law, Alexander Livingston, because I 
guess he has nothing but what his adopted father 
gives him, and it wouldn’t be right, but he’s a good 
fellow, and came to see us, and made Betty some 
nice presents. I don’t believe in sinking under 
misfortune, however. Looking round for some- 
thing to do next, I hit upon a man who had a ferry 
boat running across the Hudson River from New 
York to Weehawken, and who wanted to sell out 
and start instanter for the California mines. The 
news had just come, and he was boiling over to 
get there. Well, I didn’t know much about boat- 
ing, but I didn’t think I needed to know much to 
hold a tiller or take a hand at an oar. Anyhow I 
bought him out, and ran the boat, with a couple 
of men to help me, for over three months, working 
all the time as if I was in training for a boat race, 
and only making fair wages at that, but I felt all 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 265 

the better for the hard work, and when I went home 
I always had an affectionate welcome from Betty.’' 

Sam Shuffles almost cried. 

We had rooms,” continued Job, “not far from 
the ferry at Weehawken, while 1 was in that busi- 
ness, and she was just as happy there as she’d been 
at the Boar’s Head, and by a number of little con- 
trivances she succeeded in giving an air of com- 
fort to our new abode, and in making me feel that 
it was home the moment I entered.” 

Sam Shuffles sighed, and Job continued : 

“ There was a look of grace, of taste, of fitness, 
of order and of harmony in the selection and 
arrangement of the scanty furniture, and of all the 
adjuncts of our apartments, and I said to her — 
‘ Betty, you’re just the girl for me ; you’re an artist, 
and worth your weight in gold.’ But the news 
from California soon began to dazzle me ; every 
mail brought better reports than we’d heard before, 
and I said to her, ‘ Betty, if it wasn’t for you. I’d 
sell the boat, and make tracks for the gold mines 
right away, for boating isn’t much in my line, and 
the profits are very slim. There’s a man in New 
York who’s offered me what I paid for it, and 
I’ve a good mind to take him up, but I couldn’t 
take you to California with me ; it’s no place for a 
woman. ‘Don’t let me stand in your way,’ said 
she. ‘ It’s a wife’s business to help her husband, 
and if you think you’ll do better there than here, 
I say go, and God be with you. I’ll stay with 
father in Dutchess County while you’re gone.’ 
‘Well,’ said I, ‘ I do think I’d do better there than 
here, and I might come back to you with a fortune 
bigger than you’ve ever dreamed of.” 

Sam Shuffles interposed with tender comments 
on Betty. 

“The result of it was,” resumed Job, “that I 


266 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


sold my boat and took a steerage passage for San 
Francisco, and with a light purse and a multitude 
of anxious and loving injunctions and cheering 
prophecies from Betty, I kissed her good-bye, 
promising that if fortune favored me I’d do I don’t 
know what for her, — that is, I built a few castles in 
the air, but as fact is often stranger than fiction, it 
isn’t impossible I may realize them, though very 
improbable. Nothing venture nothing win, and 
I’m going my whole pile on California. What has 
happened to one may happen to another, and you 
and I are just as likely to make a ten strike as any 
of the rest.” 

‘‘ It’s well enough to look on the bright side,” re- 
marked Shuffles, “ but I feel as if I’d been euchred 
already. This fever’s pretty near used me up 
already. ” 

“Never say die, old boss,” said Job, “Fortune 
favors the brave. Live in hope and reserve your- 
self for more prosperous times. Those who are 
down have always something to expect, and those 
who are up have always something to fear. 

“ ‘ The bravest are the tenderest ; 

The loving are the daring.’ 

Go in and win for Sarah’s sake, just as I’m going 
to try to do wonders and astonish all creation for 
Betty’s sake. ” 

“Oh, yes, you can talk like a book, but it’s easier 
to talk than to do.” 

“With some people it is, with others it isn’t. 
What’s the use of your standing up here with a 
face as long as a ladder, and despairing of the 
future? I’d as soon think of jumping over Niagara 
Falls as of feeling hopeless about anything here 
below. It’s time enough to sink when you can’t 
swim any longer. By the bye, have you heard 


A marvellous coincidence. 267 

anything of Betty's crazy lover Harry Birdseed 
since he was sent to the lunatic asylum ? " 

“No; he's still on Blackwell's Island, I guess, 
but when he went there he wasn't expected to live 
the year out.” 

That afternoon the twain stepped on board the 
small steamboat that conveyed passengers from 
Panama to the steamer for San Francisco anchored 
out in the bay beyond the rocks that rendered 
navigation too perilous to allow of her nearer 
approach to the shore, and soon after daylight on 
the following morning — while a couple of whales 
were rolling and spouting lazily under her bows— 
she weighed anchor and steamed away down the 
beautiful bay — whose face was as smooth as a 
mirror and brightened by the rays of the rising 
sun — with the giant chain of the Andes majesti- 
cally following the coast on the left. 

Previous to embarking, Job made a small loan 
to Samuel out of his scanty means, for the latter 
had exhausted his resources, and the former was 
naturally generous and prompt to give what aid 
he could where it was needed. Liberality, says 
La Bruyere, does not consist so much in giving a 
great deal as in giving seasonably, and Job was as 
generous as a sailor in being willing to help a 
friend while he had a shot in the locker, for he felt 
that we should assist those who need our help 
by deeds, and not by mere empty words. 


CHAPTER XL. 

One Saturday afternoon in November, 1851, a 
huge and clumsy-looking stage, full of passengers, 
and drawn at full speed by four mustangs, entered^ 


26 ^ A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

with a rattling noise, the main street of the new 
and flimsy township of Sonora in the heart of a 
populous mining district in California, and stopped 
before a large" frame building, a huge sign on 
which told that it was the Sacramento House — the 
principal hotel and bar-room of the place, the 
rapidity of whose growth was suggestive of that 
of a mushroom or a gourd, and made even the 
miners of the vicinity marvel. 

Among the passengers b)^ the stage was one 
wearing the usual dress of a miner — a pair of 
eagle-topped leather boots reaching outside of his 
striped “pants’’ halfway up to the knee; a while 
felt wide-awake hat encircled by an eagle-bucklcd 
band ; a red serge shirt, answering as a substitute 
for both coat and waistcoat, and a maroon-colored 
eagle-buckled leather belt round his waist on -which 
was slung a Colt’s revolver. 

It was Saturday, and Sonora was consequently 
crowded with miners from the adjacent diggings 
eager to spend Sunday and their money amid the 
attractions of the gambling houses and hotels with 
which the town abounded. The populatif)n was 
composed of Americans, Frenchmen, Italians, 
Germans, a few Englishmen, and a disproportion- 
ately large number of mongrel Mexicans, and after 
dusk the main street — in fact, the town itself, for it 
principally consisted of this one street — presented 
an almost continuous blaze of light, the bar of 
every hotel and gambling house — and almost every 
house was one or the other — being brilliantly 
illuminated. Attractively dressed girls flaunted 
behind the counters, and bands of music — some 
composed of negroes — vied with each other in 
making as much noise as possible, and some of 
the places that thus invited the miners to enter and 
spend their money doubtless, to their eyes, wore ^ 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 269 

% 

look of seductive allurement, tawdry as was the 
display, for in a new mining country men are not 
apt to be very critical of the entertainment offered 
them. 

The man referred to might have been seen play- 
ing montd with many others at one of the public 
gambling tables during the evening according to 
the fashion of the place, and that gaming is the 
son of avarice and the father of despair was shown 
there as at Baden-Baden, only to a more limited 
extent, for those who became “dead broke” by it 
had strong hopes of rapidly retrieving their fortunes 
at the mines. 

“ Gaming, that direst felon of the breast, 

Steals more than fortune from its wretched thrall. 

Spreads o’er the soul the inert devouring pest, 

And gnaws and rots, and taints and ruins all.” 

Fortunately, however, the individual referred to 
was only playing with small stakes for amusement, 
and was not addicted to the vice of gambling like 
most of his fellows, for having been unusually 
successful at the mines, he had sense and self-con- 
trol enough not to fritter his “pile” away. 

Before midnight he returned to the Sacramento 
House, where, having paid for a bed, and received 
a tally denoting its number, he set out on a 
journey to discover it. After ascending a ladder- 
like flight of stairs he found himself advancing 
head first into what looked very much like a hay- 
loft. It was faintly lighted by a lean and sputter- 
ing candle stuck in the mouth of a bottle, and the 
gloom of the apartment consequently presented a 
marked contrast to the glitter and glare below ,- 
but after his eyes became accustomed to the semi- 
darkness the stranger saw arranged in unpic- 
turesque rows about forty stretchers with a narrow 
passage between them. The moving of some 


270 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


weary sleepers would have been enough to pro- 
claim it the dormitory even if most of the beds had 
not been already occupied. 

After groping some distance and striking his 
shins and stumbling by the way he found the des- 
ignated number, but also found to his great dis- 
comfiture that his appointed stretcher was nothing 
more than a piece of stretched canvas nailed to 
four legs crossing each other like the letter X. In 
other words, it was stripped of both its pillow and 
coverings, which last were limited to a pair of 
blankets, sheets being luxuries unknown in the 
vicinity — partly in consequence of the high price 
of labor, including washing. 

He was quick to divine the cause of this. The 
weather being cold for the season, those who pre- 
ceded him had helped themselves to additional 
blankets at the expense of those who were to follow, 
so in self-defense he was forced to do likewise, 
and indeed it was with but little compunction that 
he stripped a stretcher a short distance from his 
own, and, in addition, helped himself to an extra 
blanket from another. After that he followed the 
example of his room-mates, and, with his revolver 
under his pillow, went to sleep. 

At about three in the morning, however, he 
awoke, feeling very chilly ; a natural consequence 
of sleeping uncovered. He felt for his bed-clothes 
but clutched only at the air, for those who came 
last finding their stretchers stripped had in turn 
stripped some of the sleepers to supply themselves, 
and he was one of the victims. 

“This is giving tit for tat with a vengeance,” he 
muttered as he rose and began to dress himself in 
the dark, and having put on his clothes he lay 
down again and dozed till after daylight. 

All the stretchers were occupied in this best bed- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


271 


room of the best hotel in Sonora, and among so 
many lodgers it was not surprising that some were 
found to be early risers, and these seemed to make 
it their particular business to awaken all the 
rest. 

Hearing their voices and the tramp of their 
heavy boots, the individual whose slumbers had 
been broken in the manner described shook off 
his drowsiness, and sat erect on his stretcher. 
Then looking rather listlessly about him, his eye 
rested on the face of a man dressing himself on 
the opposite side of the room. 

“Is that you Sam he asked in surprise. 

“Hillo, Job Fenwick! Is that you?'" exclaimed 
Sam Shuffles, equally surprised. “Where have 
you been all this time.? ” 

“At the mines, but I went down to Sacramento 
a week ago, and only got back last night.” 

“Have you heard from home lately? ” 

“ Not for two months and over.” 

“You haven’t? Then you don’t know the 
news 1 ” 

“What news ? ” asked Job. 

“Your wife’s dead I ” answered Shuffles. 


CHAPTER XLI. 

“ Dead ! Good God ! You don’t say so ? When 
did it happen ? What did she die of?” asked Job ; 
and the strong man trembled under the terrible 
shock, and grew pallid as he spoke. 

“Inflammation of the lungs, but here's a letter 
I had from Sarah a fortnight ago that’ll tell you 
all I know about it,” replied Mr. Shuffles. 

“Oh ! Betty, Betty, poor darling girl ! Is she 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


272 

indeed dead? I can hardly believe it. Let me 
read the letter,” and as he went over to where 
Sam Shuffles was standing and took it from his 
hand, tears welled up into his eyes. 

He went back to his stretcher and read it eagerly, 
and when he had done so he raised one hand to 
his eyes while retaining the letter in the other, and 
sobbed convulsively. 

“Don’t take it so much to heart,” said Shuffles. 

Worse things than that have happened in the 
world, though it is rough on a fellow, I know. We 
must all pass in our chips at some time or other.” 

“Ah, yes,” replied the bereaved man, “but if 
you knew how I loved her ” 

“ It’s hard on you, I know,” remarked Shuffles, 
“but don’t fret, you’ll get over it. Death robs us 
all in our turn, and it’ll steal our own lives by and 
by. There’s no use in grieving over what’s inevi- 
table. I always philosophize over death, I do, and 
try to look at it cheerfully, like the Irishman in the 
song who says, ‘ If I had but a noggin ’twould be 
cheerful to die.’ ” 

Job sat on his stretcher moaning and swaying to 
and fro, and the remarks of his brother-in-law only 
served to make his mental sufferings more intense. 

Shuffles went on talking flippantly, and Job 
listened with the stupid resignation of despair. In 
the desolation of his spirit he craved some look or 
word of tenderness, some sign of sympathy, how- 
ever small, to mitigate the almost insupportable 
sense of bereavement and hopelessness which 
weighed upon his heart like a mountain in a dream. 
His sudden grief had subdued his mind and made 
him feel as helpless and feeble as a child, and he 
felt an actual longing after death in order that he 
might rejoin in the world beyond the woman he 
had loved and lost. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


273 


In the anguish of his soul he re-read the letter to 
see if his senses had deceived him, but its re-perusal 
only deepened the conviction of his overwhelming 
loss. It seemed to him, as he glanced around, as if 
a great change had passed over every object that 
met his view. The faces of the men in the room 
had a hard and pitiless look ; the morning sun — 
streaming through the windows — shone with a 
fierce, malignant glare, and the very earth upon 
which his eye rested as he directed it towards a 
particular point appeared hard, obdurate and for- 
bidding. 

Meanwhile some of those in the apartment who 
had overheard the conversation made comments 
thereupon among themselves, and two or three 
addressed words of comfort to him, but as their 
language was largely composed of the slang of the 
mines it would hardly be understood if reproduced 
here. 

“Come out into the fresh air ; it ’ll do you good,’' 
said Sam Shuffles, and Job followed him down the 
steep stairs and out into the dusty street almost 
mechanically. 

“This news,” said the latter, “ has crushed me. 
I’m dead broke,” and he laid his hand on his 
friend’s shoulder as if to save himself from sinking 
to the ground. “Her last letter was full of hope 
and cheer, and now she is dead and buried — dead 
and buried ! Poor dear girl ! I’ve lost her — lost 
my poor dear wife ! What will become of me ? I 
wish I’d been with her when she died. Poor thing, 
I wish I was in heaven with her. God help me ! 
God help me ! ” and he raised his handkerchief to 
his eyes and again gave way to his bitter grief. 

“ Here,” said he, after his emotion had partially 
subsided, “ I’ve been working like a galley slave 
for her, and looking forward to going back a rich 


274 -4 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

man — and few have made a bigger pile in so short 
a time than I have done — and now all’s knocked 
in the head and I’m sent reeling. Something is 
always happening in this world to disappoint us, 
and generally just when least expected. This 
decides me to go east by the next steamer. I feel 
that the spell of my good fortune is broken, and I 
shall have only bad luck if I remain. I’ll go and 
plant flowers on her grave and write her virtues in 
monumental marble. Oh ! I’d have given the 
world to save her — she was so good, so true, so 
gentle, so kind, and she loved me so well 1 Ah ! 
I shall never find another to love me as she did — 
sweet darling Betty. I hope she’s gone to a better 
world where the wicked cease from troubling and 
the weary are at rest.” 

‘‘Look here now,” interrupted Sam Shuffles, 
“you’ve gone just about far enough in slopping 
over for it to be good for you. Take my word 
for it you’ll get over it There’s nothing like time 
for healing wounds, and I wouldn’t mind betting 
that you’ll find some one else to suit you to a dot 
before you’re two or three years older. Why, a 
handsome young fellow like you needn’t go far nor 
wait long to get suited, and what good will grieving 
do you ? ” 

“Stop I ” cried the disconsolate widower ; “ I’m 
in no mood for that I want sympathy, or I want 
to be alone. Leave me to my own thoughts, or I 
shall die of anguish.” 

“ The grave a gay companion shun, 

Far from the sad the jovial run.” 

“Ohl all right — anything to please you, and 
take my advice. You have it bad now, but you’ll 
get over it ; ” and after so saying Sam Shuffles, in- 
stinctively feeling that a person in affliction is a 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


275 


sacred object, returned to the hotel while Job walked 
away from the main street towards a secluded spot, 
and a more sorrowful looking face and figure than 
his could hardly have been imagined. 

“ Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
Whispers the o’erfraught heart, and bids it break.’’ 

In the cold majesty of his solitary woe he com- 
muned with his own soul, and prayed for her who 
had gone before, and reproached himself for having 
left her, and failed to appreciate her for all she was 
worth, while again nd again he read the tear- 
blotted letter which had brought so much sorrow 
to his heart. 

* ‘ That what we have we prize not to the worth 
Whiles we enjoy it ; but being locked and lost. 

Why, then we rack the value ; then we find 
The virtue that possession would not show us 
Whiles it was ours.” 

Homesick as well as heartsick, for the maladie 
du pays overcame him simultaneously with the 
knowledge that he was wifeless, he set out for San 
Francisco en route for New York, but Time, the 
great healer, soon moderated his atfiiction. 

Let us dismiss all excessive sorrow, says Juvenal, 
for a man’s grief should not pass the bounds of 
propriety, or show itself greater than the infliction. 


CHAPTER XLIL 

Alexander Livingston pursued the even tenor of 
his way after the discovery that he was Stephen 
Gumbles no less than before, and he lived on lov- 
ing and beloved in the Livingston mansion, under 
his adopted name, as serenely as if the Gumbles 
family had never darkened its threshold. 


276 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

Mrs. Livingston had, however, since that event 
banished from her mind all suspicions of his being 
her own son, and contentedly regarded him as her 
adopted son, feeling towards him, nevertheless, un- 
diminished affection, for loving him had become 
necessary to her happiness, habit, even in matters 
of sentiment, being second nature. 

She had reluctantly yielded to the logic of facts 
at last, and now that she was convinced of the 
error of her former assumption — in which “the 
wish was father to the thought — she abandoned 
all hope of ever seeing the original again, and was 
fully resigned to enshrining in her heart the second 
Alexander in his stead. 

After graduating at college — which he did with- 
out achieving what are popularly called honors — 
he had begun the study of the law, and he was 
diligently preparing himself for admission to the 
bar at the time of the Gumbles revelation. 

Madeline in her idiosyncrasies was very like her 
father, whose force of character was far greater 
than her mother’s, as the reader has not failed to 
discern, and from the first she had taken his view 
of the case with regard to Alexander the Second. 
She had therefore never looked upon him as a 
brother, although she learned to love him regardless 
of that fact, just as he learned to love her while in- 
stinctively feeling certain she was not his sister. 

To say that this love ripened with their years 
would be merely to state the bald truth. It ex- 
panded from a delicate bud into a beautiful flower, 
and they lived in its fragrance, devoted to and 
cherishing each other ostensibly as brother and 
sister, but really as lovers with no tie of blood 
between them. 

It was this more than any natural disinclination 
for society that made Madeline care more for home 


A Marvellous colncidence. 


277 

and less for the former than most girls of her age 
and attractions. She never went to a party with- 
out her father or Alexander as her escort, almost 
invariably the latter, and her indifference to beaux 
would have been marvellous on any other theory 
than that involving a prior engagement of her af- 
fections. It is almost useless to say that she had 
no lack of these, for where there is honey, there 
will be bees, or, in the words of Plautus, uhi mel, 
ibi apes. 

“ That Miss Livingston has plenty of head but 
not a bit of heart,’’ was the comment of one of her 
disappointed admirers who had in vain sought to 
make an impression upon her. He said this be- 
cause she was highly educated and accomplished, 
remarkably intelligent and a brilliant talker, yet 
had no responsive utterances for those soft noth- 
ings and that sentimental nonsense which often 
precede a declaration of love from ardent swains 
eager for a coveted hand. 

Virgil tells us a woman is at all times an incon- 
stant creature, as changeable as the wind, but 
Madeline was a splendid example of woman’s con- 
stancy and devotion. Well was it for her she 
found one equally devoted in the object of her love, 
and happy, thrice happy, indeed, was he ! 

She had no encouragement to offer suitors how- 
ever suitable they might be, and when some of 
them, despite discouragements, boldly rushed in 
where angels feared to tread, as it were, she gently, 
almost tenderly, repulsed them by telling them she 
did not love them, and could not give her hand 
where her heart was not already. 

Madeline and Alexander well knew the deep 
love they bore each other, and when, the day after 
his admission to the bar, about a year subsequent 
to the solution of the mystery of his parentage, the 


278 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

time came for him to speak he only said : "‘Made- 
line, you know how dearly I have always loved 
you, not merely as a brother would a sister but as an 
earnest and devoted lover — with a love surpassing- 
the love of woman, recognizing in you the nearest 
approach to womanly perfection — and my greatest 
ambition has been not only to win you but to be 
worthy of you. I need not say that I give you my 
hand as a pledge of my sincerity, and that I should 
not be ungrateful enough to breathe a word of this 
— deeply as my happiness is involved in you — 
if I had any reason to suppose it would be dis- 
tasteful to either your father or mother. The earth 
produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man. 
But if you do bestow upon me — poor and depend- 
ent as you know me to be — the hand I seek, you 
may rest assured that it will be my highest aim 
and greatest pleasure always to deserve it.” 

“Oh ! Aleck,” she replied, “you know my heart 
is yours ! ” and she gave him the hand he sought 
as the great prize of his existence, and they sealed 
the compact with a kiss. 

Alexander frankly told Mr. Livingston the simple 
story of his love and its declaration, and asked his 
consent to the engagement. 

“ I have nothing to offer her but my love,” he 
said. “I am wholly dependent on your bounty 
and my own exertions, yet I am sanguine, I shall 
succeed, for I have the determination to work, and 
I feel within me the power to achieve an honor- 
able independence. Industry and perseverance 
will command success, and I can have no grander 
incentive to exertion than her love ! ” 

“My dear Alexander,” replied Mr. Livingston, 
“I have been anticipating this, and so, I am glad 
to say, ha^ Mrs. Livingston. Consequently, I am 
happy to be able to say that we both give our con- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


279 

sent to your union with Madeline, and I wish you 
to make your mind easy on the score of money, 
for I shall treat you precisely as I would have done 
my own dear boy, had he lived, and so, I have 
every reason to believe, will Mrs. Livingston, who, 
as you are aware, has a large property of her own. 
I am perfectly willing that you and Madeline 
should get married whenever you choose, for I 
know you are essential to each other’s happiness. 
You can continue to live at home after your marri- 
age, as at present, or, if you and she prefer it, I 
will give you a separate establishment, and may 
God bless you both ! You are a young man of 
good principles, and I have perfect confidence in 
your making her a good husband, and I know, my 
dear Alexander, she will make you a good wife. 
You have been very fortunate to find, in a way so 
strangely romantic, the love of so good a girl, and 
one who deserves to be cherished as the apple of 
your eye; ’’and as he concluded, he cordialKy grasped 
the young man’s hand. 

Alexander melted to tears, and standing with 
bowed head, said : “I may well be overwhelmed 
by emotion after listening to what you have just 
said, Mr. Livingston. My heart seems to rise to 
my mouth as I speak, so great is my love and 
gratitude for all you have done for me, and partic- 
ularly for this last great crowning act of all. Words 
are indeed feeble to express what I feel, nor is it 
necessary that I should try to convey by language 
what can only be felt, and the deepest sentiments 
are the most difficult to depict. I might as well 
strive to paint the lily and add a perfume to the 
rose as to tell you what I think of you and how I 
feel towards you, for affection so strong, respect 
so great, and gratitude so profound as mine are 
not to be measured by the utterances of the tongue, 


28o a marvellous colncidence, 

but by the capacity of the mind and heart for feel- 
ing. Would that I were worthier, Mr. Livingston, 
not only of her but of her and of you who have 
been a father and a mother to us both. To Mrs. 
Livingston I turn with a heart full to overflowing, 
and as her son-in-law I shall still call her mother, 
and ever feel for her the same love and gratitude I 
have expressed for yourself. I am equally in- 
debted and attached to you both, and I rejoice 
exceedingly that a new tie will in the future bind 
us still closer together.'" 

“We are eavesdroppers, forgive us ! " exclaimed 
Mrs. Livingston, as, holding Madeline by the hand, 
she entered the library in which Mr. Livingston, 
and Alexander had been speaking, through a fold- 
ing door which had been open. “I heartily ap- 
prove of all Mr. Livingston has said, and I have 
listened, Alexander, with pride and pleasure to your 
sentiments, and so has Madeline. Let me give 
you a kiss and, at the same time, my daughter ! ” 
and she placed Madeline’s hand in his, and blessed 
them both with her lips. 


CHAPTER XLIII. 

Job, with nearly a hundred thousand dollars in 
gold in his possession — represented by a receipt for 
the amount sent by Wells, Fargo & Co's, express, 
from San Francisco to New York — the product of “ a 
big strike " in mining, reached the latter city from 
California, in January, 1851, and immediately took 
his way to the quiet Dutchess County village of 
Lithgow, in which Mr. Gumbles, his father-in-law, 
resided, and where his beloved Betty had breathed 
her last. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 281 

There in the open biirying-ground — ^he bent over 
her grave, and planted the flowers she had loved 
best, and committed to a trusty hand the task of 
building to her memory a monument. 

He eagerly gleaned all the particulars of her last 
illness, and it consoled him to hear that all that 
could be was done to hold the tyrant death at bay, 
and that her last words were of love for himself 
and trust in God. He knew that, 

‘ ‘ Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain ; 

For they breathe the truth, that breathe their words in pain.” 

^‘She was a likely girl — she was, and it made 
me feel bad to lose her,’' said Mr. Gumbles, “but 
maybe you’ll get another just as good. I always 
think that what the Lord does is for the best, and 
we shouldn’t complain because He takes some of 
His children before their time.” 

Then, looking seriously at his son-in-law, he con- 
tinued — “Look you here. Job, you’re a young 
man, and a handsome one, and you’ve been to 
California, and come back with plenty of gold, and 
you can get^any girl you’ve a mind to. Take my 
advice, and go a courting. Marry again as soon 
as you can. It’ll relieve your mind. It won’t do 
you a bit of good to be feeling bad about Betty, 
and it won’t do her no good either. Take some 
other girl, young man. If I was your age, I’d do 
it as quick as I could say Jack Robinson. Sail in, 
young man, sail in ! I give you leave.” ^ 

“Sir,” said his son-in-law, “how blessings 
brighten as they take their flight ! I never knew 
how much I loved her till I heard she was no more. 
But ril take your advice — into consideration,” and 
he smiled with amusement over Mr. Gumbles’ re- 
marks, notwithstanding the sadness at his heart. 
To tell the truth they m"ade a deep impression upon 


282 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


him, and directed his thoughts from the present to 
the future. New hopes seemed to kindle in his 
breast, and he was cheered by the prospect of joys 
to come. His mind was keenly susceptible to new 
impressions, and his ardent and restless nature was 
of a kind not likely to brood long over an affliction 
however great, but to seek relief in diversion and 
change of scene. His grief, while it lasted was in^ 
tense, but in proportion to its intensity it was brief. 
His excitable, mercurial temperament caused him 
to be as easily elated as depressed, and its natural 
buoyancy was its safety-valve. Such natures abound 
in apparent contrasts of character, and are prone to 
rush from one extreme to another with a rapidity 
that to the lymphatic might give rise to suspicions 
of insincerity, but which, viewed in their true 
light, are the spontaneous manifestations of a 
healthy individuality. 

“Was her brother at the funeral ? ” asked Job. 

“He was, and brought crosses and anchors 
made of white flowers with him. I wrote him a 
letter telling him she was dead. That was the first 
he knew of her sickness, it was so sudden. You 
know he’s to be married to Miss Livingston ? ” 

“You don’t say so. What ! his sister, as she 
used to be called .? ” 

“Yes, she’s the one, a mighty fine young lady 
too. Steve sent me a letter telling me ; but he’s 
only Steve by nature, not by name. He’s what he 
was before I found him — Alexander Livingston, an 
upper ten grandee. But I’d as soon he was that as 
anything else, and he’s right in standing by them 
as stood by him and saved his life.” 

“You astonish me about his engagement. When 
is the wedding to be ? Are you going .? ” 

“I’m thinking on it, but it’s not to happen till 
next fall. Maybe I’ll have a new suit of clothes 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 283 

made and go, but I mean to keep dark and not say 
anything about being his father unless I’m asked. 
He has been brought up so differently from what I 
was that I don’t feel up to his mark by a long shot 
now, and I w’ouldn’t stand in his way for anything. 
I’ve never been to Mr. Livingston’s to see him since 
that day we all went together, in consequence, but 
he’s been here to see me half-a-dozen times. I guess 
he wrote to Sally — Mrs. Shuffles — too, but she’s in 
Indiana.” 

“You’re a very considerate father, Mr. Gambles, 
and I congratulate you on having so successful a 
son. That wreck made his fortune, didn’t it ? ” 

“Well it didn’t turn out so badly for him, but it 
was death to my old woman — poor Martha ! — and 
came near being death to me. I’d rather a horse 
had kicked me a good deal than have had that 
happen. I’ve felt kind of lonesome ever since. 
We are both in the same box. Job.” 

“You ought to have married again, Gumbles. 
That’s my prescription for you even now. It’s 
never too late to mend, you know.” 

Gumbles eyed him quizzically, and rejoined : 

“ I guess you’ll be taking your own medicine 
after a while. Job,” to which Job replied : 

“Never; but I’d like to see you take it, old as 
you are.” 


CHAPTER XLIV. 

From the grave of the wife he mourned. Job 
turned towards the home of his mother, eager to 
tell her of his good fortune in the Golden State and 
to present her with a purse of five thousand dollars 
which he had reserved for her. 

She was living in a small two-story brick house 


284 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

on the outskirts of the grimy manufacturing city 
of Troy on the Hudson, in full view of a forest 
of big chimneys capped by curling clouds of smoke, 
to which place her husband had removed from 
Newark about two years previously on account of 
the rolling mill in which he had worked there 
having been closed, which forced him to seek em- 
ployment elsewhere. 

On a certain cold but sunny afternoon, as she sat 
mending her husband’s garments at one of the 
two small windows, with very small panes, in the 
little front parlor, the gate leading to the humble 
dwelling was thrown back, and raising her eyes 
from her work she saw the tall, handsome figure of 
her erratic and adventurous son advancing towards 
the door. 

His coming was so unexpected that she felt a 
shock of surprise that almost took away her breath. 
His appearance was unmistakable, but in the mat- 
ter of dress he had undergone a transformation, for 
on his arrival in New York he had provided him- 
self with a fashionalole suit of mourning black, in- 
cluding a frock coat, and divested himself of the 
rough garments he had previously worn. He had 
exchanged his wide-awake for a silk hat with a deep 
band of bombazine on it as an outward sign of his 
own mourning, and respect for his wife’s memory, 
and he took to wearing black kid gloves and car- 
rying a cane, so that being naturally a very showy 
man, his becoming apparel made him every inch a 
fine gentleman in the eyes of admiring observers of 
the softer sex. 

“ My dear, dear Job 1 ” she cried, as she ran to 
open the door for him. 

“ My dear, dear boy ! ” she exclaimed again as 
she admitted him, and fell upon his breast in an 
ecstasy and raised her face to kiss him. 


A marvellous coincidence, 285 

dear mother, forgive me,” he exclaimed, 
and kissed her with filial affection, and while he 
pressed her in a tender embrace his eyes glistened 
with unwonted moisture. For a few moments 
there was silence between them, and then tears of 
joy ran down the mothers furrowed cheeks — fur- 
rowed less by age than by years of wearing anxiety, 
disappointment and care. 

Don’t cry, mother dear, don’t cry,” said Job. 
“Here’s something I’ve brought you from Cali- 
fornia that you’ll find handy to have in the house,” 
and he gave her a bag of coin so heavy for its size 
that it would have probably fallen from her hands 
if he had suddenly released his hold of it. 


CHAPTER XLV. 

“What is it. Job .? ” asked his mother as he placed 
the bag on a chair. 

“It’s five thousand dollars in gold coin, mother, 
and you’d better spend what you need of it to make 
you comfortable, and lay the rest by as a nest-egg 
for a rainy day.” 

“Five thousand dollars. Job ! After giving me a 
thousand before that I have kept in the Savings 
Bank all these years ! How did you get so much 
money .? ” 

^ ‘ Oh ! I made a heap more than that. I mined 
for it — stood and worked up to the knees in water 
for days together, sometimes at the bottom of a deep 
hole, and slept in a wet bed and a windy tent, but 
three of us made a ten strike. It was the biggest 
find that had been heard of at the Sonora mines. 
Yes, we tried deep sinking and struck paying ore 
right away, and one lump of gold that we brought up 


286 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


weighed over two hundred and sixty-three ounces, 
and you bet it did our eyes good to look at it and 
to see more glistening in the dirt under our feet and 
around us. That dirt panned out well, I can tell 
you. At last one of my mates fell sick and died, 
and my other mate and myself divided his share 
between us as he directed we should, for he left no 
relations. But no matter about how I made my 
pile. Not long after that I went to Sacramento to 
get some fixings, and on my way back in the town 
of Sonora I heard from my brother-in-law of my 
wife’s death.” 

“ Your wife’s death ! Why, Job, I didn’t know 
you’d been married ! Why didn’t you tell me ? ” 

“Well, I meant to tell you, mother, but I was 
too busy, I guess. I was awfully hard run just 
then, and there’s been no let up on me since. I 
tell you now, though, it’s all the same. I meant to 
let you know of my marriage when I came back. 
It was quite a romance. Y ou’ll be astonished when 
you hear it.” 

^ ‘ Who was she ? ” 

“Oh! one of the nicest girls you ever saw — 
Betty Gambles. You’d have liked her, I know you 
would. She was just as pretty as a picture, and it 
nearly broke my heart to lose her.” 

“Where did you meet her.?” 

“In New York, but she died, poor thing, at her 
father’s in Dutchess County, and I’ve just come from 
there now.” 

“ How long were you married.? Did she leave 
any children ?” 

“Only a year or so before I left, and she had no 
child. I wish you’d known her, but it’s too late 
now. ” 

“So you’re in mourning for her, I suppose? ” 

“Yes,” and he drew a deep sigh. “ How have 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE:} 287 

you been, mother, and how are Mr. Besse and Joe, 
and what are they doing ? 

“I expect them in from work soon. They are 
both working in Tite’s foundry.” 

Then she suddenly threw her arms round her 
eldest born — the once little Job who had been the 
solace and delight of her sorrowful widowhood 
passed in Sandlake and the Shoreham poorhouse — 
and said : “Oh, my dear Job, Tm so glad to see 
you. If you'd only known how your poor mother 
felt about you, you wouldn't have left her as you 
did. Oh, no. Job you never would,'' and she 
sobbed at the recollection of all she had suffered. 

“Tm very sorry for it, mother, now, and I'll 
promise that you shall never lose sight of me again. 
I'll turn over a new leaf and try to make up in the 
future for all I've done to make you suffer in the 
past. I've been a bad boy, I know I have, but I 
won't be so any more. Now that I've made money 
I mean to go into business in New York, though 
I'm going on a little trip to Europe before I settle 
down. I feel that the voyage will do me good, and 
divert my mind from Betty, for I haven't been my- 
self since I heard of her death, and it was only yes- 
terday that I stood at her grave and ordered a 
marble monument to be built over it. Beside that, 
I need a holiday. ‘ All work and no play make 
Jack a dull boy.' '' 

A heavy footstep was heard. 

“Here's Joe!” exclaimed Hephzibah. “Joe, 
here's your brother ! ” and the son of Zachary and 
the son of J oshua shook hands warmly. The latter, 
now a tall, stout young fellow of seventeen, with a 
close resemblance to his father when a small boy, 
had accompanied his half-brother in the Yankee 
Notion wagon on his peddling trips through Con- 
necticut, and consequently knew him well, and their 
meeting was that of old friends. 


288 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

“ It seems to me^ you’re in luck, Job,” said Joe — 
the sole offspring of Hephzibah’s union with Joshua 
Besse — surveying his half-brother from head to 
foot with a comical smile. 

“ Yes,” was the reply, “ IVe made money. I’ve 
just come from California.” 

“Yes!” said his mother, “and see what he’s 
brought me — five thousand dollars 1 ” and she lifted 
the heavy bag from the table where it had been 
standing. 

Just as she let it down again with sufficient force 
to make a heavy clinking sound, her husband, 
looking like the Joshua Besse of old, except that 
his hair was thickly sprinkled with gray, and he 
had grown a trifle heavier, opened the door. 

“Hillo! Job,” he cried as he caught sight of 
him, “ where did you come from ? Why, Job, you 
take the shine out of us ! What have you been 
doing to make yourself so stylish ? — got a bran new 
suit on, eh ? ” 

“ He’s just come from California,” exclaimed his 
mother, “and see what he has brought me — five 
thousand dollars 1 ” and she again lifted the heavy 
bag and let it drop so as to make a louder clinking 
sound than before, it was such welcome music in 
her ears. It was a windfall which gladdened her 
heart, although we have it on the authority of 
Horace that windfalls are less valued than the usu- 
fruct of our own industry. 

“Well done. Job — good for you ! ” said his step- 
father. 

Then turning to his wife he said, “ Hepzy, you 
deserve it. I alius thought you’d have a stroke of 
luck some day to reward you for all you’ve had to 
suffer. ” 

“ Job,” said he, “I’m glad you’ve remembered 
your mother, for when you ran away that time you 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 289 

nearly broke her heart. I’m glad to be able to 
think better of you than I did, Job, and I hope you 
won’t forget her again, for she was alius a good 
mother to -you, and loved you more than she ever 
did Joe.” 

‘ ‘ I’m very sorry I gave her so much pain, but I 
ran away partly because of the chores and other 
hard work they made me do at Graham’s Hotel, 
and the constant nagging I had to stand, for which 
they only gave me a quarter of a dollar a week 
and my meals ; and I knew if I told you or mother 
what I was going to do you’d have prevented me 
from going off. Besides, I must say that I wanted 
to be a circus rider, and I guess I enjoyed life 
with a travelling circus about as well as any young 
fellow going. I had a high old time of it. But let 
bygones be bygones.” 

“Yes, indeed,” said his mother, “I forgive you. 
Job, from the bottom of my heart. Only promise 
that you’ll write to me, and come and see me some- 
times, and you’ll make me happy.” 

“I will, mother, I will. You may rest assured 
of that, and whatever I can do to help you all along 
I will do.” 

“ Do you know. Job,” she asked, “ that you’ll be 
twenty-four on the 2nd of September coming?” 

“Is that so — twenty-four? I knew I was about 
that. How time flies ! ” 

“ It seems a long time to me. Job, very long.” 

“ How is Uncle Stetson getting on ? And Mrs. 
Stetson, and Susan how are they ? ” 

“Jack’s been working in a mill at Providence 
ever since, and his old woman’s all right, I guess, ^ 
and Susan got married long ago, as you know,” 
said Joshua in reply. 

“ Uncle Jack has never hankered to go whaling 
again, I guess ? ” g 


290 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

“No, I guess not ; — you bet he hain’t. He had 
enough of it to last him his life that last voyage of 
his, and when he got hum he swore he’d never go 
a- whaling again, and he never will. I’ll bet. You 
know he was lost at sea, and his old woman thought 
he was dead, and would ’a married agin, I guess, if 
she’d had the chance ’fore he turned up alive, to 
everybody’s wonder. It was just the same as a 
resurrection to her, it came so sudden.” 

“ Oh, I remember all about it. I was there when 
he came home, you know. We w^ere all there — 
except Joe,” remarked Job. 

“ Hepzy,” continued Joshua turning to his wife^ 
“you remember that evenin’ at Providence when he 
came in on us just as the widow Stetson — as we 
used to call her — was getting our supper ready 
after we’d been gettin’ married in the poorhouse, 
and come in by the Taunton coach from Shoreham 
with little Job } ” 

Yes, indeed, and Job remembers it too, I’ll war- 
rant. Don’t you, Job.?” 

“ Certainly I do ! ” said Job, “ but why mention 
the poorhouse.? I’ve heard enough of that. Let 
us have something more genteel. I remember 
well the lively time you all had kissing and crying, 
and how I wished you’d stop it and give me my 
supper. ” 

At this both Joshua and Hepzy laughed. 

“Susan’s got five children,” resumed Joshua. 
“She’d a had seven, but two on ’em died.” 

“Is she still living in Providence, too.?” 

“Yes, she’s than They’re all thar, and doing 
purty well, I guess. Providence is a rising place, 
more than this is by a heap. Susan married a man 
from Maine who’s running a machine shop of his 
own. You ought to go and see ’em. They re- 
member you well, and they’d be right glad to clap 
their eyes on little Job.” 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


291 

Very likely ; but life is short, and I have other 
fish to fry just at present. Some day when Fm in 
Providence, I’ll drop in upon them like an appari- 
tion — a surprise party of one — as Uncle Jack did 
long ago.” 

“Now, Job,” said his mother, “tell us the ro- 
mance. I want to hear all about your marriage.” 

“Well, to begin with,” he replied, “I married, 
without knowing it, the sister of the young fellow 
you mistook for me ! ” 

“What, Alexander Livingston ! ” she exclaimed. 

“That young fellow that I saw.?” asked Mr. 
Besse. 

“And the one mother met in New York when I 
was with her?” queried Joseph. 

“The very same,” answered Job. 

“ How in the world did it happen, and why 
didn’t you let me know. Job,” inquired his mother, 
eagerly. 

“I’ll tell you. It’s as extraordinary as anything 
I know of. You remember that time you found 
me performing at Peekskill I told a story about a 
young girl who mistook me for her brother one 
moment and found out her mistake the next, and 
gave me a small pocket-handkerchief marked with 
goldfish, as a keepsake before she went away, and 
said her name was Betty ? ” 

“Yes.” 

“Well, that was the girl I married ! ” 

“You don’t say ? ” 

“Yes, I do. This is how I came to meet her 
again and find out she was Alexander Livingston’s 
sister,” and he proceeded to tell the story of the 
developments which led to the adopted son of Mr. 
Peter Livingston discovering that he was Stephen 
Gambles, while the family listened with wonder- 
ing looks. 


2g2 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


“And his memory all came back?’' said Mrs. 
Besse. 

“Yes, he remembered everything after that.” 

“Bless me, how strange! Why didnt you let 
me know, Job ? ” 

“As you’d made a mistake, I didn’t think you’d 
care much about it. ” 

Then he told of the intended marriage in the 
autumn of Alexander and Madeline. 

“Oh, I would so like to see them married!” 
said Hephzibah. ‘ ‘ But what a long engagement ! ” 

“That’s all right,” responded Job. “Wait till 
next fall. They’re waiting now to see if any more 
long lost boys will be discovered. Yes, I’ll take 
you to the church, mother, and bring you home 
again. ” 

‘ ‘ Well, if Joshua and Joe are willing to have me 
go, I will.” 

‘‘ Willing? of course they will be,” he observed, 
answering for them, and both assented. 

“ Wonders will never cease,” she remarked. “I 
wouldn’t have believed all these things possible, 
but seeing is believing. I don’t know which to 
wonder at most. Job, you or Alexander ! ” 

Of course they were eager to learn something 
from his lips about California, which to them 
seemed more like some land of fable than reality, 
so suddenly had its boundless riches come to light, 
and everything of which we are ignorant is likely 
to be overrated or taken for something magnificent. 
He therefore gratified their curiosity in such a way 
as to elicit a few sighs and a good deal of mirth 
and laughter, according to the varying play of his 
humor and pathos, in the recital of what he had 
seen and done. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


293 


CHAPTER XL VI. 

As the family group sat that evening in the small 
parlor of the small house, Hephzibah revived in 
pathetic language the familiar story of little Job 
lost and found, and Joshua Besse and Joseph list- 
ened with as much interest and feeling as did Job 
himself, while the latter more than once during 
the recital brushed tears from his eyes, so touch- 
ing was the plain, unvarnished tale of which he 
was the hero. 

When I got back to Mrs. Tyler’s,’' continued 
Plephzibah, “bringing my boy with me, and told 
her I had found him at the circus, she thought I 
was fooling her, it seemed so improbcible, for she 
had heard about Job’s mysterious disappearance 
from Josh not long after it occurred, and about my 
finding what I thought was him in New York. 
Job said he was very glad to see me and very 
sorry for having run away, but he didn’t want to 
leave the circus and go back with me to Newark 
to see Joshua and Joe, even if he only spent 
a day there, because he said Dan Bryce wouldn’t 
like his going away, but the next day he did come 
home with me ; and don’t you remember. Josh, 
how astonished you were when you saw us .? It 
seemed to me as if your eyes would start out of 
their sockets. You recognized him right away, 
didn’t you. Josh.? but you, Joe, were too young 
to remember him.” 

“Yes, I knew him,” said Joshua Besse, “and 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


294 

1 remember asking you where you found him. It 
was most as surprising to me as Jack’s return was 
to the widow Stetson, and I could hardly believe 
my eyes, especially after your findin’ the other 
boy so like him.” 

“And so it was to me, too, after all I’d heard of 
him,” chimed in Joe. 

“Job,” continued his mother, “you ought to 
have staid with me after that, instead of going back 
to the circus the next day with Mr. Livingston.” 

“You know, mother, I had agreed to stay a cer- 
tain length of time, and I was bound to keep my 
contract. As soon as my time was up and I could 
leave with a good grace, I said good-bye to Dan 
Bryce and all the rest of them, and came to see you 
and staid three weeks, and then took Joe with me 
into the travelling dry-goods business, and sent 
him home again when I sold out to save him from 
bad company ; and see what good use I’ve been 
making of my time ever since ; and this is only the 
beginning ! ” 

Yes, yes,” said his mother, “ and I hope you’ll 
go on and prosper. Job ; only be careful to do unto 
others as you would they should do unto you, and 
God will bless you.” 

“If I’m not able to astonish the natives,” con- 
tinued Job, “I won’t let any grass grow under my 
feet, I can tell you, and remember this — that if I 
don’t reach the White House I’ll make my mark 
in some other way, or perish in the attempt. 

“ ‘ Men at some times are masters of their fates ; 

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 

But in ourselves that we are underlings. ’ 

I only need opportunity to do wonders, and I’ve 
got just the start now that I wanted in the shape 
of dollars and cents. It is easy to add to but dith- 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


295 

cult to acquire, in the first instance, either wealth 
or honors — harder to get the first thousand than 
the last million." 

Had he read Juvenal he might have quoted to the 
same effect, Facilius crescit quant inchoatur dignitas. 

‘ ‘ Say what you like about filthy lucre," he added, 
“ it’s the best kind of ammunition you can have 
to fight the world with. 

“ ‘ There is a tide in the affairs of men. 

Which, taken at the hood, leads on to fortune ; 

Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.’ ” 

“ You’re smart, and no mistake," observed his 
stepfather, and if you once get the cry on you. 
Job, you can’t stop it, and your fortun’s made, for 
sartain." 

“ I hope you’ll live to be a great man, Job," said 
his mother, “ but whatever you do don’t have too 
much self-love ; fear the Lord and pursue the 
straight and narrow path that leads to the Kingdom 
of Heaven, for ‘ what doth it profit a man if he 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? ’ ’’ 

“Well I’ll try to be good, mother, but this is a 
hard world to do it in, and ‘self-love is not so vile 
a sin as self-neglecting.’ It’s easier to be a back- 
slider than a saint when you dwell among sinners, 
especially if they are fond of draw-poker." 

“Then that’s why you should be particular about 
the company you keep. ‘Evil communications 
corrupt good manners,’ and you can’t touch pitch 
without being defiled. Pray to God on your 
bended knees night and morning that He may have 
you in His holy keeping. Tell the truth and shame 
the devil. Commit the Ten Commandments to 
memory and practice them religiously, and you’ll 
be favored of God and honored among men, and 
when you leave this world for another and a better, 


296 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

you’ll die the death of the righteous, and inherit a 
crown of eternal glory. Remember, Job, that — 

‘ ‘ ‘ Man wants but little here below, 

Nor wants that little long, ’ 

and that there’s something more to be looked after 
than the riches of this transitory world, though 
money’s necessary, and I advise you. Job, to get 
all you can of it honestly, and remember the 
maxim — take care of the pennies, for the pounds 
will take care of themselves. But ill-gotten gains 
will only burn holes in your pockets. ” 

^‘Mother,” said Job, “you’ve preached the best 
sermon I ever heard, and I shall remember those 
precepts to my dying day ; and if I don’t practice 
them as I. should, it will be because while the 
spirit is willing the flesh is weak ; but I have no 
doubt of getting on in the world myself if God 
gives me health and strength. I banish doubts. 

‘ ‘ ‘ Our doubts are traitors. 

And make us lose the good we oft might win, 

By fearing to attempt.’ ” 

The family party sat up late talking of the past, 
present and future, and job slept in a bed that his 
mother prepared for him in Joe’s room. The 
whilom landlord of the Boar's Head, the ferryman 
of the Hudson River, the Young Ingomar of the 
circus troupe — erst the little Job of Sandlake, and 
his mother’s sweet companion in the Shoreham 
poorhouse — had bloomed into a capitalist under 
the golden sun of California, while she, true to 
her promise, had never disclosed Joshua’s confes- 
sion of murder to either of her children, or any 
living soul, and Job, believing the shooting to 
have been accidental, had long forgiven him the 
tragic deed that left her widowed and himself 
fatherless. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


297 

But another tragedy was to confront the house- 
hold. When he awoke the next morning his 
mother in a half frenzied state was standing at his 
bedside, and he was horrified to learn from her 
that his stepfather had just been found dead in bed. 
Great was her grief. A coroner’s inquest was 
held, and a verdict of death by apoplexy was 
returned. 

“My poor mother,” said Job, “you have had 
more than your share of trouble. I am afraid I 
have brought you bad luck. But put your trust in 
God, and depend on me for cash. You know the 
Bible says : ‘ I have never seen the righteous for- 
saken, nor his seed begging bread.’” 

“Job,” she said, “you know how to comfort 
your poor old mother, don’t you? You ought to 
have been a clergyman.” 

There was a tender and a touching scene at the 
Troy railway station on the third day after Mr. 
Besse’s funeral, when Job took leave of his newly 
widowed mother. 

“Good-bye, and God bless you, mother!” he 
said tenderly, to which she responded tenderly and 
sadly : 

“My poor, dear boy, God bless and preserve 
you, and bring you safely back to me, but oh 1 my 
son,” and here she burst into tears of anguish, and 
buried her face in his breast, “you are such a 
wanderer I’m afraid you may never come back.” 

“Leave me alone for that, mother; bad pennies 
always do come back, just as naturally as chickens 
come home to roost. And you know God watches 
over the widow and the fatherless, and the wind 
is tempered to the shorn lamb.” 

The conductor’s cry of “All aboard ! ” fell upon 
her ear like a knell, and her twice widowed heart 
sank within her as she nervously clutched his arm 
and kissed him good-bye, 


29 ^ -4 MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 

Then she was left standing alone on the platform 
to follow the moving train with a wistful gaze and 
a flutter of her handkerchief till it vanished from 
her view. As she turned away with a sad feeling 
of solitude — a rather tall and thin woman, with a 
pale and prematurely wrinkled visage, tearful gray 
eyes and frosted hair — she looked as if joy at his 
coming and sorrow at his going and her own 
sudden bereavement were contending for the 
mastery in her bosom, the joy, however, being to 
the sorrow in the proportion of Falstaff’s penny- 
worth of bread to his pound of sack, yet relieving 
the gloom, like sunshine after rain, through a rift 
in the clouds of a stormy sky. 


CHAPTER XLVII. 

About eight o’clock one morning late in Novem- 
ber, 1852, and the day previous to that fixed for 
the wedding of Alexander and Madeline, when 
both were looking forward with calm delight to 
the auspicious event, an unusually tall young man 
of about twenty-five, in a rough sailor-like costume 
of dark blue, including a pea jacket, wide trowsers 
and a glazed hat, walked rapidly up to the Living- 
ston mansion in Washington Square, with long and 
easy strides, and rang the bell. 

He was deeply tanned even for a seafaring man, 
his hands and face and neck being of a leathery 
brown, and he could only have been bronzed to 
such an extent in a tropical climate, but he looked 
strong and healthy, and his massive shoulders and 
limbs were in harmony with the rest of his large 
and well developed body. 

He was lithe and graceful notwithstanding his 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


299. 

size, and his breadth being proportioned to his six 
feet three inches of height, he was a splendid 
specimen of the genus homo. 

He was a very uncommon-looking person, and 
when the fat old man servant with the red face and 
the white hair opened the door in response to the 
summons of the bell, he looked at him fully as 
hard as he had done at the Gumbles family, before 
him, and, as he looked, the expression of his face 
gradually became one of blank amazement. 

‘‘Well, Richard, you here still?’' said the 
stranger. “Don’t you know me ? ” 

“Know you. Master Aleck? of course I do. I 
thought you were drowned, and so did all of us. 
How you have changed ! ” 

“My father, mother and sister — tell me, are they 
living ? ” he asked with a painful sense of uncer- 
tainty as to what the answer would be, and he 
experienced a sudden feeling of relief when the 
old man replied : “ They are, and oh ! how they 
will feel to see you back again after all these years, 
and you such a little fellow when you went away, 
and now so big, and such goings on about you 
while you were away ! They’ll hardly believe 
their eyes. Where have you been. Master Aleck, 
all this time ? ” 

“Til tell you by and by, Richard. Are they all 
at home?” *■ 

“All at home, sir, and at breakfast. I’ll tell 
them you have come, or will you go right 
in yourself? Oh! Master Aleck, how they will 
feel ! ” 

The young and bronzed Colossus followed the 
agitated and hurrying servant, whom he had 
known from his infancy, towards the, room desig- 
nated, outside of which he paused while the latter 
rushed in exclaiming, with uncontrollable excite- 


360 A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

ment, “ Master Aleck’s come back at last! He’s 
here I ” looking towards the open doorway. 

All eyes were instantly turned in that direction, 
and all but Alexander the second sprung to their 
feet uttering exclamations of surprise, so astound- 
ing was the announcement. He sat in mute 
wonder, feeling almost like an intruder and await- 
ing developments. 

Before Mr. and Mrs. Livingston and IMadeline 
had time to get to the door the cause of this sudden 
commotion stepped forward and stood before them 
without speaking a word, as if waiting to be recog- 
nized. 

“ Why, Aleck I At last ! l\Iy child 1 ]\Iy 
child ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Livingston, rushing up 
to him. 

“My dear mother!” he ejaculated simulta- 
neously, and stooping kissed her. ' 

By this time ]\Ir. Livingston had reached his 
side and grasped him by both hands. 

“Where have you been all this time, Aleck.?” 
he asked. “You come like one from the dead ! ” 

“ Oh ! Aleck ! Is it you, my dear, dear brother.? ” 
asked Madeline, flinging herself into his arms and 
kissing him, accepting him more because her 
parents had done so than through any recognition 
of her own, although she had a sufficiently good 
remembrance of him to feel sure — in the assuring 
light of their recollection — that he was the long 
missing Alexander, young as she was at the time 
he was supposed to have been drowned. 

Again and again the real Alexander embraced, 
and was embraced by, his mother and sister, and 
rapid was the interchange of questions and answers 
between them, as well as between him and his 
father, for the three were eager to learn where he 
had come from, and what he had been doing 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 30 1 

since he last left home, and why he failed to 
return. 

“ How wonderfully tall you have grown, and 
how dreadfully sunburnt you are, Aleck ! ” re- 
marked Mrs. Livingston after she had recovered 
from a paroxysm of tears sprung from the well of 
joy. “And yet changed as you are I can see the 
old look in your face as distinctly as when I saw 
you last. Oh ! Aleck, if you only knew what I 
have passed through you would be sorry for me. 
Do you know we have another Aleck t ’’ 

“ No,’' said he, thinking a brother had been born 
in his absence. “ Where is he ” 

“There he is!” she replied pointing to her 
future son-in-law. 

He bowed and looked at him with a puzzled 
expression of countenance. 

“Why, he is nearly as old as I am. You don’t 
mean he is my brother ? ” 

‘ ‘ So doth the greater glory dim the less ; 

A substitute shines brightly as a king 
Until a king be nigh.” 

“Oh ! dear no, but I thought he was once. He 
is your brother by adoption, and to be married to 
your sister to-morrow. How singular you should 
have returned the day before 1 Oh, Aleck I 

“ ‘ God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform.’ ” 

Alexander, the second, came forward and, while 
clasping the hand of Madeline’s brother, welcomed 
him back generously, saying, “I abdicate in your 
favor I ” 


302 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


CHAPTER XLVIII. 

you didn’t think I was drowned you must 
have thought me a very bad boy to run away from 
you,” said the returned heir, while his mother 
clung to one of his arms and his sister to the other, 
and his father had his hands resting on his 
shoulders. “But I was as sorry for it as you 
were. This is how it happened.” 

THE LONG LOST ONE’s STORY. 

“I went in a sail boat with Charley Mitchell, 
down the Passaic, and out to Newark Bay ; then 
he would keep on going further. By and by we 
got into New York Bay, and still he kept on till 
we got outside of that, too, with the open sea before 
us. I said, ‘ Charley, now let us go back, or we 
may get upset; we have been out a long time.’ 
It had been blowing hard since we left Newark ; 
the boat had been going very fast all the time, 
and we were a long way from home. The wind 
then began to blow very hard, and he looked 
frightened. ‘ I want to get back,’ said he, ‘but the 
wind’s against us, and I don’t know how to put 
her on the other tack. I am sorry we came so 
far. We are outside of Sandy Hook.’ 

“There was a vessel sailing out of port toward 
us as he spoke. I think he was trying to tack 
when a squall struck the boat and over she went, 
and the next I knew was both of us were 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 303 

struggling in the water. Then I laid hold of the 
boat aitd climbed up on to it. I saw Charley 
swimming away off toward the boat, and at last 
he got up to it, but he hadn’t strength to climb up. 

I couldn’t reach far enough to help him, and he 
kept bobbing up and down for a while, and then I 
saw no more of him. He must have sunk. I 
was frightened and crying on the top of the boat 
when a boat from the vessel came and took me 
off. I had dry clothes given me and something 
warm to drink. 

“ The captain asked me my name and all about 
myself, and I told him and asked him to take me 
home, but he said he couldn’t as he was bound to 
the Pacific. I cried all day, and lay awake and 
cried all night after that, and wondered what you’d 
think had become of me. I didn’t get over it for 
near a week. Then I saw it would do no good 
to go on crying, and I gave it up like a conun- 
drum. 

“We went first to the Sandwich Islands; then 
— after calling at the Navigator’s Islands on the 
way — to the Society Islands. It was the brig 
Rover, Captain Jones, I was aboard of, and he 
made me work hard and look spry about the cabin 
for my keep, so that I consider I earned it, and 
didn’t owe him anything when I left at the island 
of Ta-ha. That was more than four months after 
I was picked up. I didn’t mean to leave the ship 
there, for I wanted to go home with her, though 
everything was so beautiful I wished I belonged 
there. It looked like what I had read about the 
Garden of Eden in the Bible, and the climate was 
deliciously warm, so that the people went about 
with little or no clothes on, and were as happy as 
the day was long. 

“Well, one night when the Kanakas were spear- 


A MARVEZLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


304 

ing fish by torchlight near the vessel I hailed the 
nearest canoe and was taken in. I wanted to see 
how the spearing was done, and be among the 
lights flaming on the water, they looked so 
splendid. When the moon rose above the horizon 
the canoes went ashore : spearing by torchlight 
can only be done in the dark. I didn't know how 
to get the natives to take me back to the ship, 
and I was willing to see where they went to and 
what they did. They took me with them to their 
huts a long way from the shore toward the 
mountains. The moon was up and the forest 
looked magnificent. Then they all said, “Yer 
hanna! " to me and shook hands, and wanted me 
to join in their singing and dancing, and loaded 
me with flowers and fruits. I found the native 
who had been spearing in my canoe was the king 
of the island. He made a great deal of me, and 
gave me a seat at his side, and showed me how 
to sit cross-legged as he and all the others did. 
He handed me something to drink that he was 
drinking himself — it was orange rum made by the 
natives, I afterwards learned — and that sent me to 
sleep before long, and I went to bed in his own 
hut. There was more singing and dancing and 
flowers and fruit the next day, and all the Kanakas 
seemed to be having a good time. I told them I 
wanted to go back to the vessel and pointed to 
the shore, but they didn’t understand me or didn’t 
want to. The next night came, and I slept again 
in the king’s hut. When he took me the next day 
to the opening in the reef where the vessel had 
been anchored she was nowhere to be seen. 

“I cried when I found I had been left behind, 
but the king and all the men and women who were 
with him laughed at me and danced round me so 
much that I had to laugh too, I knew I might 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


305 

never be able to get away, or, at least, not till an- 
other ship came. It made me grieve to think how 
you would all feel about me, but all 1 *could do 
was to pray for you, as you, mamma, taught me to 
pray. And when I left the vessel I took a copy of 
the New Testament with me to give to the native 
in the canoe. A Bible Society had put a lot of Tes- 
taments and tracts on board, the captain said, be- 
fore he left New York. The king had this, and 
when we got back to his hut I asked him to put. it 
in a place where it would be safe and I could al- 
ways find and read it. I showed him where, and 
he tabooed all from touching it and wrapped it in a 
piece of fine tappa — the cloth made by the natives. 
I could get it whenever I wanted to, and I read a 
chapter every morning and evening as I used to do 
at home. I generally read it aloud to the king 
and as many of the Kanakas — that is what the 
people were called — as could get near me. 

“I kept on talking English because I didn't know 
how to talk their language, though I managed to 
pick up a few words very soon, and more by de- 
grees. They picked up my English just as fast, and 
would ask me the name of everything in my lan- 
guage by pointing it out and telling me theirs. In 
that way they came to speak of trees, mountains, 
sky, sea, wind, water, house, man, woman, child, 
cocoa-nut, banana, bird, fish, and a great many 
other natural objects in English while I knew what 
they were called in their tongue. I grew up so for 
more than five years, though I didn't know how 
long it was then, for I lost track of time, and couldn't 
guess what month or year it was any more than I 
could tell the day of the week. 

“There hadn't been a white person on the island 
all this time, but I kept from forgetting English by 
teaching it to the king and natives and reading out 


3o6 a marvellous coincidence. 

of the New Testament twice a day. Before the end 
of these years all the natives spoke broken English, 
though they didn't know a word when I came, and 
they understood most of what I read to them, and 
professed to be of my religion. ‘ I Christian 1 ' they 
would say, pointing up to heaven, and then they 
would kneel down while I read to them, kneeling 
too. I didn't do this at first, and I found it hard to 
get them to do it after I began, but they came to it 
at last, and seemed to understand and believe in 
Christianity, though I couldn’t get them to leave off 
any of their practices contrary to it They would 
sing himmes — as they called them — too, after me, 
though I didn’t know the right tunes, for I’d put one 
of the tracts that came with the Testaments in my 
pocket along with the book I spoke of, and there 
were three or four hymns in it, and those were sung 
all over the island to my tunes with Kanaka im- 
provements. 

“One day after these years had passed, an Eng- 
lish missionary and his wife came over in a big 
canoe from Raiatea, the nearest of the other islands. 
He was surprised to find another missionary there 
in the shape of myself, and the natives talking Eng- 
lish and professing Christianity, but he remained 
there and went to work, and I helped him all I could. 
In return he taught me things 1 had forgotten and 
others I had never learned. I went to school to 
him like, and he seemed to take pride in educating 
me. What I had lost of my language and previous 
education came back to me by listening to him and 
reading the books he lent me. More white folks 
came after him to settle on the island, and we 
pushed on the missionary work. Before that I had 
been made a big chief by the king. I was always 
called by the natives ‘Hua-Hua’ after the only 
singing bird in the island. ‘ Alexander Livingstop ’ 


A MARVELLOt/S COINCIDENCE. 


307 


was something that their tongues, accustomed to a 
language full of vowels, couldn't get round, and 
they always name each other as well as white 
folks after natural objects. 

“But I am spinning too long a yarn. To cut it 
short, ril tell you I was never sick all the time I 
was there, and that no ship came to the island till 
nearly four years after the missionary came, though 
vessels we knew called at Tahiti and some of the 
other islands. When a vessel did come it was going 
whaling, and wouldn’t take me except I would ship 
as a seaman for the cruise, which might have lasted 
for two or three years in a cold climate, and I 
thought the sudden change might kill me. So I 
waited till other ships arrived — they came oftener 
after that — but it was not till about eight months 
ago a vessel named the Sea Gull called at Ta-ha 
that I found was in command of the same Captain 
Jones who brought me there in Rover. He said 
he was going to Australia, and was very much as- 
tonished to see me still alive where he had left me, 
thinking I had been drowned. I asked him if he 
would take me, telling him I was willing to work 
my passage as a sailor, but had no money. He 
said : ‘ You may come aboard ! ’ So I bade good- 
bye to everybody — they were very sorry to have 
me go away after being so long among them — and 
left, and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at 
going away from the island, I had been so long 
there, but I felt more sad a good deal than glad. I 
was going the wrong way to get home so that I 
might get a ship for the United States, and I didn’t 
know I would ever reach here. I couldn’t help 
tears coming into my eyes as I saw the last speck 
of the islands go under the horizon, for all the 
friends I had known in the world for thirteen years 
of happy existence--except for thinking of you— 
were there. 


3 o 8 ^ MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

“ God favored us, and after calling at the Friend- 
ly Islands we had a quick run to Melbourne, and 
there I bade good-bye to Captain Jones, who was 
very good to me, and shipped at full wages on a 
barque bound for New York, Captain Binnacle, and 
after a voyage of going on four months arrived off 
Quarantine late yesterday afternoon, and came up 
and anchored in the North River early this morn- 
ing.” 

“ Captain Binnacle ! ” exclaimed his father. “ Is 
it possible, Florence, it can be our old captain of 
the Swallow ? What is his first name, Alexander, 
and what aged man is he ? ” 

“Captain Simon Binnacle, about sixty-five,” an- 
swered the returned wanderer. 

“The very same. I have not seen or heard of 
him before, since we parted at New Orleans. It is 
as strange that you should have returned by his 
vessel as that the same captain that took you to 
the islands should have brought you away again 
after so long a lapse of time.” 

Alexander went on to describe his experiences 
still further, remarking incidentally that he had 
never been sick a day since he left Ta-ha, and ex- 
pressing his gratitude for this great boon of health 
as well as for the care with which a merciful Provi- 
dence watched over him in the midst of the num- 
berless perils through 'which he passed. 

“This,” said he, in concluding, “in as few 
words as I can tell it, is the story of my adventures 
by sea and land since I left home, and here are the 
mangled remains of the Testament with which I 
taught Christianity to the Kanakas of Ta-ha ! ” and 
at the same time he drew them in a wrapping of 
brown paper from the inside pocket of his jacket. 

“ God bless you, my darling Aleck ! ” cried his 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


309 

mother. '‘Thank Heaven for restoring you to 
me. Wonderful ! Wonderful ! 

“ Brave boy ! ejaculated his father. “There is 
not another such case on record. God indeed has 
delivered you ! ” 

“What a hero you have been ! '' exclaimed 
Madeline. 

“You deserve to be called Alexander the Great ! " 
said his namesake, whose story he had not yet 
heard. 

“Thank the Lord I have solved the mystery for 
you, and reached home at last ! " spoke Alexander 
himself. “May I be able to give you as much 
comfort in the future as I have caused you grief 
in the past ! ” 


CHAPTER XLIX. 

At his invitation, Job’s widowed mother came to 
visit him at his hotel in New York, and he said to 
her, “What do you say to going with me to Mr. 
Livingston’s, and congratulating my brother-in-law, 
Steve Gumbles, I mean Alexander Livingston, on 
his marriage to-morrow ? ’’ 

She thought well of it, and all the better because 
she was well dressed, for Job kept her well sup- 
plied with money, and she had good taste in dress. 
They were soon at the house in Washington 
Square. 

The little fat man servant, with the red face and 
white hair, looked very much astonished to see two 
persons who had created at different times so much 
commotion in the family reappear on the eve 
of the wedding, especially after the astonishing 
event of the morning, and in view of the fact, that 
Mr. Gumbles had also just called. Having asked 


310 A MAJiVELLOl/S COINCIDENCE, 


them to take seats in the reception parlor, it was 
with something like fear and trembling he went 
to the bridegroom expectant to announce their 
presence. 

The whole family were in the front sitting-room 
upstairs, including the newly returned heir, and 
Mr. Gumbles — who had arrived in town a few hours 
previously, and had called for the same object, as 
Job and his mother — was telling him the story of 
his son’s disappearance and discovery, to which, 
as it was very similar to his own case, he listened 
with great interest. 

Much mirth and surprise were expressed at the 
visit of the too positive Mrs. Besse and her son 
at this particular juncture, which, however, was 
not unwelcome. 

“It never rains but it pours,” said Alexander 
the second, “shall I ask them up, or go down and 
see them ? ” 

“Ask them up. I would like to see them, ob- 
served the pilgrim from the Society Islands — who 
had heard the whole story of Job, as well as of 
Stephen Gumbles on the two wrecks, — and the rest 
of the family assenting to this proposition, the 
visitors were ushered into the room. 

They were greatly astonished to see Mr. Gum- 
bles in the centre of the family circle, and still more 
to be introduced to the sun-browned original Alex- 
ander by his later namesake. 

“You’re not a bit like Job !” said Mrs. Besse, ad- 
dressing the former. 

“No, I don’t think I am, not in complexion at 
any rate. And yet, I am told, you mistook for Job 
this young man whom my mother mistook for me, 
so we should look a little like one another. But 
I don’t think I look much more like him even than 
I do like Job.” 


A MAR VELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 3 1 1 

‘^No, I don’t think you do. And so you are the 
boy that was thought to be drowned. When did 
you come back .? ” 

‘^This morning only,” and Mr. Peter Livingston 
gave her a brief outline of his career after which he 
went on to say: “ This is a most remarkable gather- 
ing, the more particularly as it was accidental — 
and quite unexpected. Here are three young men 
nearly of an age, who have been strangely, and I 
may say marvellously, associated together while 
far apart and unknown to each other. Each one of 
two different mothers mistook one of them for her 
own son, owing to a close resemblance in early 
boyhood, and yet he was not the son of either, and 
in the end both mothers found their own sons, and 
by a singular combination of circumstances the 
two mothers, their two sons and the one they had 
mistaken are brought face to face on the eve of the 
marriage of the third young man to a lady who 
would have been his sister had one of the mothers 
been correct in her supposition, while one of the other 
two had actually married the sister of this third 
young man without knowing anything about her 
relationship to him, or she, or her family, being 
aware that her brother was alive, or his knowing 
who they were, or where they were, till he met 
them in this house, where his father is now seated 
beside him. It was a wonderful and a compli- 
cated case, a chapter of amazing coincidences, but 
fortunately Providence has unraveled the tangled 
skein for us, and we have all cause to be truly 
thankful that the deep mystery surrounding the fate 
of each of these three missing persons has been so 
happily solved. Well may it be said that fact is 
stranger than fiction.” 

The returned voyager left the domestic circle, 
after Mr. Gumbles, and Mrs. Besse and Job, had 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


312 

gone that afternoon, and went back to his ship to take 
leave of her and see the captain. 

‘‘Are you the Captain Binnacle who commanded 
the Swallow, fourteen years or so ago I ” he asked. 

“Yes, I guess I am. You mean the Swallow 
that was wrecked going from New York to Cuba 

He nodded in the affirmative. 

“ How come you to know about her .? 

“You remember your passengers, Mr. and Mrs. 
Livingsto;i ^ ” 

“I do that. Why, did you know them.? I 
haven’t set eyes on them since we reached New 
Orleans after the wreck.” 

“They are my father and mother.” 

“Your father and mother.? Why they were 
gentlefolks. How come you, then, to be a man 
before the mast .? You are not the young fellow 
we found nearly dead on the key, that Mrs. 
Livingston said was her missing son, are you .? ” 

“No, I know who you mean. I am the missing 
son ! I have only just turned up. This is the 
first time I have been home for more than fourteen 
years ! ” 

“You don’t say .? Well, I never ! I guess you 
are fond of long voyages, and if you’d go to sea 
for pleasure in that way you would be as likely as 
not to go to the lower regions for pastime. Then 
what became of the young fellow we saved from 
the other wreck, and brought along with us in the 
boat .? ” 

“ He is living, and to be married to my sister 
to-morrow.” 

‘ ‘ Are you gassing .? ” 

“No, that is the truth.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me all this before .? ” 

“ I didn’t know anything about it till I returned 
home this morning, and happening to mention 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


313 

your name, my father told me he thought you must 
be the captain of the ship that was wrecked while 
he and mother were on board, and he said he 
would be glad to see you.” 

“ He did, eh.? Well, I’ll be just as glad to see 
him, and his lady. It will put me in mind of old 
times, and I’d like to see the young fellow we 
found among the dead bodies, too. Married to- 
morrow, you say ; where ? ” 

“ At the Church of the Ascension, corner of Fifth 
Avenue and Tenth Street, at three o’clock.” 

“ Well, I guess I’ll be on hand, and see how he 
looks.” 

“But come up with me now to the house. 
They’ll be glad to see you.” 

“Will they .? And you’re not humbugging .? ” 

“No, I’m in earnest.” 

“You look it. I’ll go. But things are mixed, 
aren’t they .? It would take me a week to get the 
hang of them. How come you to get up such a 
first class sensation ? ” 

When the quondam Society Islander returned to 
the house he introduced the veritable Captain 
Binnacle of the Swallow to his parents. 

“Why, captain,” said Mr. Peter Livingston, “I 
never expected to see you again. You have hardly 
changed at all since I saw you last.” 

“ I guess I may say the same of you and your 
lady,” replied the captain. “Time has been 
kinder to you than he is to most folks. I’m glad 
to see you looking so well, both of you, for you, 
Mr. Livingston, saved my life when you cut me 
down that time from the rigging. You’re in good 
health I hope, ma’am .? ” turning to Mrs. Livingston, 
with whom, as well as her husband, he had pre- 
viously shaken hands most cordially. 

“You have heard of the romance, I suppose?” 
remarked Mr. Livingston. 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


3U 

“Yes, he was telling me a good deal about it, 
but I haven’t half got it through my head yet.” 

“Well, you remember the young boy we found 
nearly dead on the reef lying beside his dead 
mother ? ” 

“ I do that.” 

“Then allow me to introduce him to you ! ” and 
he waved his hand toward Alexander, who was 
seated on the opposite side of the room, where- 
upon the latter came forward and gave him a 
friendly greeting. 

“And you remember my daughter who was 
with us.?” continued Mr. Livingston as she entered 
the room. “ Madeline, this is Captain Binnacle.” 

“Oh! indeed.?” she exclaimed, “Captain Bin- 
nacle, how do you do .? I am very glad to see you. 
It seems that every one is returning to-day. I 
suppose it is because I am to be married to-morrow. 
I cannot tell you how very strange it all seems 1 ” 


CHAPTER L. 

The morrow came, and at the appointed hour in 
the church named the organ played the wedding 
march as Alexander and Madeline walked unat- 
tended by bridesmaids or groomsmen, for they 
had none, up the middle aisle, Mrs. Livingston on 
the arm of the groom, and the bride on that of her 
father. A beautiful bride indeed was she, and one 
of the fairest of blondes, with her bright and wavy 
golden hair crowning her fine oval head and face 
like a halo of glory, and a wreath of orange blos- 
soms and clematis and lilies of the valley resting 
on her pure and classical brow, while her warm 
but delicate complexion gave color and expression 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


315 

to features — including- a Grecian nose — as exquisite 
as were ever chiseled in marble. Her large clear 
blue and brown eyes beamed with pleasure while 
reflecting the modesty of her nature by their slightly 
downcast look, and her well-arched brows, like 
her long eyelashes, darker than her hair, formed 
fitting lintels to those windows of the mind. 

Her full, ripe lips as she smiled once in recogni- 
tion of friends, while passing up the aisle, parted 
sufficiently to afford a momentary glimpse of her 
white, regular and well-cut teeth, and the smile 
radiating from her kissable mouth lighted up her 
countenance like a ray of sunshine. 

Her rather tall and shapely figure, neither too 
thin nor too stout, but presenting a happy medium 
of well-rounded plumpness, had never looked more 
superb than now in her twenty-sixth year, and in 
this her bridal dress of white satin revealing her 
ivory-like neck and shoulders, and arms tapering 
gradually from unusual thickness above the elbow 
to a small wrist and hand. 

Time had frosted with equal impartiality both 
her father’s and mother’s hair, since they were first 
introduced in these pages, but excepting this and 
that he had grown much more fleshy, and she had 
become thinner and more worn of face, they had 
undergone little change in personal appearance. 

The groom — standing five feet eleven, with his 
dark hair and eyes, long, straight nose and inedium 
complexion, and attired in elegant morning dress — 
was as unlike Mr. Gumbles as it is usual to find two 
human beings of the masculine gender, but the 
latter — now looking from one of the pews — saw in 
him much that reminded him of the young man’s 
mother, the well-beloved Martha, partner of his 
lot, who, twenty-five years before, had ushered into 
the world the son in whose arms ten years later 


3i6 a marvellous coincidence . 

she yielded up her spirit on that desolate key in 
the Atlantic. 

Job, too, standing with his mother in another 
pew — for all rose as the bridal party entered — 
traced in him a resemblance to his sister Betty, 
the wife he had loved and lost, and of whom, with 
his sweet memories of her, he might have said, 
notwithstanding the sadness of her taking off in 
the springtime of her existence, 

“ ’Tis better to have loved and lost, 

Than never to have loved at all. ’ ’ 

Captain Binnacle — with his face wrinkled and 
weather-beaten — looking on from another part of 
the church, saw four persons who vividly recalled 
to his mind the terrible scenes and incidents of the 
wreck of the Swallow, and the narrow escape they, 
and he with them, had from death. 

• “ Here,” he said to the long lost one a little later, 
“is another of the changes brought about by the 
whirligig of time. Who’d have thought it ? My 
conscience, what a change it is from that key where 
we found the nearly dead boy, and yet there he is 
as large as life, a strapping fellow, marrying the 
pretty girl that was with us ! May they never live 
to repent it, say I, but they haven’t married in haste, 
I reckon, after all this time, so they are not likely 
to. They are bound to be in clover now if they 
never were before, and if he isn’t proud of her he 
doesn’t deserve anything, for a nicer creature in 
petticoats I never set eyes on.” 

The brother of the bride was a conspicuous 
figure in the church, for the tanning of his skin 
was so deeply dark as to attract attention, apart 
from his uncommon breadth and stature, and make 
people wonder w'ho he was and where he had 
come from, His thick hair and large eyes were 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


317 

SO darkly brown as to appear almost black. His 
eyebrows were full even to shagginess, his nose 
long and straight, his mouth rather large, his lips 
prominent, and his teeth as white and sound as 
those of the Islanders among whom he had lived 
so long. He was there uttering in inarticulate 
prayer, heartfelt thanks for his restoration to home 
and kindred, — for his preservation to witness this 
happy event, and he derived pleasure from retro- 
spection, for, as Cicero expressed it, the remem- 
brance of labors, ills and difficulties through which 
we have passed is pleasing to us. Juctindi acti 
labores. 

The organ stopped, the impressive service began, 
the responses were made in clear audible voices, 
and Alexander and Madeline were pronounced 
man and wife, and two loving hearts were united 
forever. Then, after the benediction had been 
pronounced, they returned arm in arm down the 
aisle by which they had come, their faces radiant 
with love and happiness. 

“My dear, darling Madeline,” said the groom, 
“ I rejoice that at last you are mine ! ” 

“And I too,” she replied, with a smile which 
heightened her beauty, “am delighted to be thine ! ” 
while the organ again played, and more merrily 
than before. 

“When I saw you together in church. Job,” said 
his mother, “I was trying over again to find out 
what it was that made me mistake him for you, 
and I think it must have been his eyes and nose. 
They’re exactly like yours. But the funniest thing 
of all is Mr. Gambles being so happy and con- 
tented to have his son as if he were Mr. Living- 
ston’s. I really think he’s proud of it.” 

“Of course he is, you can see that at a glance. 
It gratifies his ambition to have a son so many 


3 i 8 ^ MAJ^VELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 

notches above himself in the social scale, and he 
respects his elevation, and got a new suit on the 
strength of it. As for his name, he would much 
rather have him Alexander Livingston, even if he’s 
only a duplicate, than Stephen Gumbles, for it’s 
my opinion he doesn’t think much of his family 
tree.” 

Talk of the sun, and a ray appears. 

“Only think of it,” said Mr. Gumbles, coming 
up to and addressing Job and his mother at the 
church door — after the wedding party had driven 
away to hold the reception at the house — “That’s 
my Steve ! ” 

Job smiled with a keen sense of the humor of 
the situation, but said nothing. 

“I’ve seen the show now,” continued Mr. Gum- 
bles. “ They can get on better without me than 
with me, and I’ll take the next train for Lithgow, 
so good-bye. Job, and when you get back from 
foreign parts, come and see me, and bring your 
mother with you. She’d like Lithgow. Good- 
bye, Mrs. Besse. Come and tell me if anything 
happens to Job.” 

“Here, old man, ’’said Job, facetiously, detaining 
him by the hand : “if you want to do any court- 
ing write her a letter. But you evidently don’t 
know a good thing when you see it. We are in- 
vited to the reception, and you must come with 
me and my mother. It’s your duty as the father 
of the groom. It’s not every day in the week we 
have a chance to kick up our heels in fashionable 
society, and, perhaps, have our names mentioned 
among the superfines in the newspapers. See.? 
We have a glorious opportunity to skirmish among 
the Knickerbocker aristocracy and the rest of the 
big swells and blue bloods, with any quantity of 
champagne, pati de fois gras and Charlotte Russe 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE, 


m 


thrown in — a free lunch good enough to make 
your mouth water and please a sybarite. Come 
along , '' and he almost bundled him, with Mrs. Besse, 
into a carriage at the church door, despite his pro- 
tests. 

“Mrs. Besse, said Gumbles, “Til go with you.” 


CHAPTER LI. 

A SLIGHT cloud seemed to pass across the sun of 
their joy as the Livingstons saw the three enter 
the reception parlor, but the jovial Job, who 
headed the procession, was so much at home, and 
so evidently enjoying himself, that he speedily 
relieved them of embarrassment. His audacious 
self-possession was so perfect that he seemed to 
have the cheek of a brass monkey, but he was 
agreeable withal, and his training in the circus 
ring had given him a fund of rollicking drollery to 
draw upon which was equal to all occasions. 
Nothing abashed him. Nothing could disconcert 
him. He would have made a good criminal 
lawyer. 

Gumbles was backward about being presented, 
but Job said, “You must go up to the bride at 
once and give her your flipper,” and he introduced 
him to one of the ushers as the father of the groom. 
In a moment he was requested to take the usher's 
arm and presented with something like a flourish 
of trumpets to the happy pair. Job, who with his 
mother had been previously presented, followed 
him, and finding him too full of emotion for utter- 
ance, did all the talking that was necessary for 
him. 

“ He has just been saying,” said Job, with great 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


320 

sang froid, to the bride, “that of all the beautiful 
brides he has ever seen, you are the most beautiful 
by far, and he wonders how such an angel can 
get along without wings. Like me, he is romantic, 
for I too was wondering how you managed it.’' 
The humor of the thing was too keen, and the 
calm effrontery too unusual, not to provoke amuse- 
ment, and she naturally joined her husband in a 
laugh over the scene. 

“Well, I am sure,” she replied, to avoid em- 
barrassment, “ I ought to feel very much flattered.” 
The pressure of arriving guests interrupted the 
conversation. Then he drifted with the throng, 
taking Gumbles and his mother with him, to 
where Mr. and Mrs. Livingston were receiving, 
and said : “ Mr. Gumbles has been overwhelming 
the bride with so many compliments that I had to 
tear him away.” Mrs. Livingston wished them 
at Halifax, and looked grand, cold and stately, 
but joined her husband in a smile of amusement. 

“Now, Gumbles,” said Job, elbowing his way 
through the crush, “we had better sail into the 
supper room, and see what high living really is. 
There is a free lunch there on a grand scale. The 
tables, I see, are manned by waiters in swallow- 
tails and white chokers, and I want to see you 
and mother feast on terrapin and quail on toast in 
the society of the Upper Ten.” 

But when they got to the supper room they had 
to join in a severe scramble to get anything to 
eat. Job, however, was equal to any emergency, 
and he soon laid the table under tribute, and plied 
his mother and Gumbles with everything within 
reach, and monopolized a whole bottle of cham- 
pagne. Meanwhile Gumbles was very attentive 
to her as second fiddle. 

“Now, Gumbles,” remarked Job, encouragingly, 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


321 

“fill your bread basket regardless of expense. 
Take another glass of dry Verzenay. Remember 
you are the father of the groom, and must do 
justice to the hospitality of the establishment. 
This is a wedding feast, so don’t be bashful. This 
is a free country too, and such a romantic 
marriage as this doesn’t happen every day. 
Mother, crack one of those fancy mottoes with 
him. ” 

She did so, and Gambles looked happy and 
radiant. The printed motto happened to be 
“ Will you marry me.? ” Mr. Gumbles read it, and 
seemed moved by a sudden inspiration. “Well, 
that’s funny,” he remarked. “ I was just going to 
ask you that very thing.” 

Both Job and his mother roared, and when 
Gumbles asked, “ Is it a bargain .? ” they roared the 
more. 

“I’ll answer for her,” said Job,; “it is,” and 
taking her by the hand he took her to the room 
where the dancing was going on, and said, “ Now, 
widow Besse, let us have a galop.” 

“Oh,” she replied, “ but I haven’t danced since 
I was a girl.” 

“No matter,” said he, “I can dance anything 
with any kind of a partner,” and he actually went 
round and across the room two or three times 
with her before she hai ime to utter any further 
protest. 

Then they came back to Gumbles, and Job 
asked him if he really meant what he said, and 
Gumbles replied that he did. Then he asked his 
mother if she was willing to take the plunge, and, 
after some hesitation, she said she thought she 
was. 

Then he added : “It’s a bargain, and I propose 
that you get married right away in this house. 


322 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


There's the rector of the church who married 
Steve and Miss Livingston, and he'll probably tie 
the knot for you ; and, mother, from what I know 
of Mr. Guinbles, I think he’ll make you a good 
husband. If he doesn’t, let me know.” 

Gumbles and Mrs. Besse assented to the pro- 
posed arrangement, and stepping up to the clergy- 
man, Job asked him if he was willing to marry a 
couple there and then. 

“Well, yes,” he replied, in unfeigned surprise, 
“ if Mr. and Mrs. Livingston . are agreeable to it ; 
but it seems a little unusual.” 

“That’s all right ” observed Job, who had the 
audacity of the devil. “The Livingstons will of 
course be agreeable ; I’ll ask their permission,” 
and he went straight to them, and asked their 
consent in this pointblank manner : 

“Mr. Gumbles has just proposed marriage to 
my mother. He is a plain but honest, respectable 
man, with enough of this world’s goods to give her 
a comfortable home, and she is a widow of suit- 
able age for him, and in need of a home. She is 
a good woman who has had a great deal of 
trouble, and I would like to see her made happy. 
The romantic marriage of his son has influenced 
Mr. Gumbles to re-marry himself, and it seems to 
me it would be a happy idea to add a little more 
romance to the occasion by having the marriage 
take place here and now. The rector of your 
own charch is willing to perform the ceremony if 
you have no objection.” 

There were amazement and consternation pictured 
in the faces of the listeners. They v/ere astounded 
by the cool audacity of the proposition, but to have 
refused permission under the circumstances would 
have seemed very ungracious indeed. They were 
taken by storm, and assented. They were 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


323 

annoyed, almost alarmed by the occurrence, yet 
Mr. Livingston said, How can we refuse .? " 

A few moments later the rector, with Mr. Gum- 
bles and Mrs. Besse standing before him, began 
to read the marriage service, and the Livingstons, 
the newly-married couple and the guests who had 
not yet left the house gathered round in wonder 
and witnessed the ceremony. The bride’s old 
wedding-ring was made to do duty again when 
Mr. Gumbles promised to endow her with all his 
worldly goods. 

Then when they had been pronounced man and 
wife the newly-married son and the newly-married 
father and their brides congratulated each other, 
and Job remarked: “Gumbles, I think I did a 
pretty good day’s work when I brought you here. 
You have won a treasure. You ought to give the 
minister something to remember you by. Don’t 
make the mistake of giving him a quid of tobacco 
instead of a bank note, as I did ; and mother, and 
you, Gumbles, old boy, let me congratulate you 
on your swell wedding, and allow me the privilege 
of kissing the bride.” 

The Livingstons and the young bridal couple 
made a virtue of necessity and joined heartily in 
the congratulations. 

Gumbles was again too full of emotion for utter- 
ance, but he mustered courage enough to follow 
Job’s example, and kissed the bride for the first time. 

The next morning’s papers had extended and 
somewhat flaming reports of the fashionable and 
romantic double wedding, and Mrs. Livingston on 
reading them remarked : “I think this notoriety is 
little less than a scandal.” But Job said : “This is 
nuts to me. I told the reporters all I knew, and 
I’ve covered Gumbles and the double wedding with 
a blaze of glory. Who says I’m not a success at 


324 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


parlor matchmaking ? By Lucifer, it strikes me 
that’s the very business I’m cut out for. But as 
matches are made in heaven, the competition might 
be too much for me here on earth.” 


FINIS. 

As for Mr. Livingston, he smiled lovingly upon 
his loving wife, with his long lost but now restored 
son by his side, and, taking each by the hand, he 
said: “Let us give thanks to God for what has 
happened. Let us utter no complaints about any- 
thing, but remember that ‘ all’s well that ends 
well. ’ ” 

“Alexander,” he continued, turning to his son, 
“you have gladdened your poor mother’s heart and 
mine by coming back to us, and you have had the 
joy of finding us both, after all these long years, 
still in the land of the living. Let us all rejoice 
together. ” 

Meanwhile the young married couple had gone 
to Philadelphia to pass the first few days of thei. 
honeymoon, while Mr. and Mrs. Gumbles had 
simply gone home to Lithgow to pass their honey- 
moon in the ordinary routine of housekeeping — a 
very sensible proceeding on their part. 

“I have,” continued Mr. Livingston, “invited 
Captain Binnacle to dinner, and I am going to pre- 
sent him with a gold chronometer watch and a 
purse with a certified check for ten thousand dollars 
in it, as a small token of my gratitude to him for 
saving me and mine, and bringing you, my dear 
boy, home at last.” 

The happy father seemed to have got a new lease 


A MARVELLOUS COINCIDENCE. 


325 

of life, and to be almost ready to again think of 
running for the Governorship of New Jersey. 

When Captain Binnacle dined with the Living- 
stons in Washington Square and received the gifts 
referred to from the hands of Mr. Livingston, after 
an appropriate little presentation speech, he turned 
to the long lost one who sat next to him at table, 
and said: “Dash my buttons, Aleck, but you’ve 
brought me luck. This kind of knocks me on my 
beam ends. It pays to bring home such chaps as 
you.” 

“And here is a little present from me, Captain 
Binnacle,” broke in Mrs. Livingston, and she 
handed him a small box containing a set of large 
diamond shirt studs. All this was a harvest of the 
sea that he had never expected to reap. 

In thanking his host and hostess the captain 
said : “It isn’t the money in these things I value 
so much as the esteem you show by giving them. 
We all like to be remembered and appreciated, and 
if I’ve done you a good turn I’m proud to be re- 
minded of it in this way. It carries me back to 
the wreck of the Swallow, and I never thought then 
we should ever meet again on dry land. As for 
Aleck here, his story is the most wonderful I’ve 
heard or read of in the annals of the sea. He 
ought to write a book.” 

“I will,” said Aleck. 

“And some day, before very long,” continued 
Captain Binnacle, with a merry twinkle in his eye, 
“I guess you’ll be saying ‘ I will’ at your own 
wedding. ” 

The laugh that followed the prophecy shall be 
the signal for me to drop the curtain on this happy 
scene. 



SEE YOUR 

TSCKSTS 
L R£AO V!A 


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,VESTE??r4 STATES 


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immA 


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asia 


J WRITE FOR FULL SET OF PUBLICATIONS TO 

; C. E, E. TTBSHEH, T>. ia;eNlCOLIi. 

* Asst. Qensral Pa.sspnjrer Afrer.t. JTontrpal Passengor Tralfic Mnnagt-r, Montreal 


I 





THEl^V^lLYEf^ 


r AMODERH Limited TRAIN TO A ^ t 

AliDfROMMlTHEURSECmESlH ^ I ,4 

D Miller, T.C.Purdy. Jam e5 Barker. 

" Traffic mKA 6 E 8 V. PREST 5 GEHL MANAOER GEMLpiiEHOER&TlOlTAtfT >* 


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Cincinnati, 

H amilton and 

Dayton Ry. 


Cincinnati and Chicago 
Line. 

THREE TRAINS DAILY. 

Day Trains have Parlor and Dining Cars. 

NIGHT TRAINS 

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FOUR TRAINS DAILY. 

Parlor Cars on Day Trains. Pullman and Wagner 
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D. Q. EDWARDS, 

Passenger Tiaffic Mgr.^ 
CINCINNATI, O. 




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rO FLOWERS/* 


FROM FROST 



Both are such desirable objective points for a Winter trip 
that it’s perhaps hard for you to decide where to go. 


LET US HELP YOU TO 
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A trip via New Orleans and the Southern Pacific to either | 
Mexico or the Pacific Coast is one you will never forget, ^ 


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IF YOU ARE THINKING OF j 

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S. F. B. MORSE, 

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NEW ORLEANS 


There is littie need of emphasizing the FACT that the 


Maine Central 


Railroad 

Has been the developer of Bar Harbor, and has made this incomparable 

summer home the 

Crown of the Atlantic Coast, 


AND MnRPnVPR; - 

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The New. Large and Luxurious Steamer, ‘‘Frank Jones,” makes, during 
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POBTIANP, M& 





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Columbia C/, 
N.Manrheater^ 


'EToW''*'' 


POOLE p09., CHiCAaO. 


The ^"^abash Railroad . . . 


Forms an important link with all lines from the East to 
CHICAGO, ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, OMAHA, DEN- 
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Leave New York, Grand Central Station, daily, 6:oo p.m. 

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Step'O?! Privilege at Niagara Falls from One to Ten Days. 

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through trains. 

ALL TRANSFERS IN UNION DEPOTS. 

For information in regard to rates, reservation of sleeping-car berths, etc , 
apply to 

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ily s 
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•4A5U4J * 



FORT 

FRAYNE 


A NEW NOVEL OF 

fit^my Life in the Kot^thmest. 

By CAPTAIN CHARLES KING. U.S.A., 

Author of “The Colonel’s Daughter,” “A 
Wartime Wooing.” 

J2MO. CLOTH, $1.25. 


NEELY’S INTERNftTIONflL LIBRARY. 


Captain King is probably the most popular American novelist of to-day. He always 
bas a good story to tell and tells it with spirit. There is no lack of climaxes, of strong 
situations, of dramatic incidents. The reader feels the author’s delight in his own stirring 
story, and is carried on by the thrilling movement of the plot, to the end. 

Captain King’s novels have been sold by the hundreds of thousands. He is known 
everywhere, and it is because he does not disappoint his readers. He gives them enter- 
taining, exciting stories that are always full of surprises and end happily. 

JfewYorR “The Captain has done many good things. He has a facile pen— too 
Berald facile, I sometimes think— and tells a story in a way to excite the 

admiration of boys and stir the blood of old men. He knows how to handle incidents, 
and does it with skill. I like to read him, and if I had twenty or thirty boys I should 
buy this book for their delectation.” 

Bnrlinsrton “Captain Charles King always has a good story to tell and tells it with 
Free Press spirit The reader feels the author’s delight in his own stirring plot 
His novels have been sold by the hundreds of thousands, because he does not disap- 
point the public. ‘ Fort Frayue ’ is fully as exciting as anything that he has yet pub- 
lished.” 

Poston “A brisk, bright, military tale, with plenty of movement and it 

Fveningp Oazotte relates to exciting incidents at a northwest army post a couple 
of decades ago. The personages who figure in the narrative stand out distinctly from 
Its pages and the descriptions are exceedingly graphic.” 

Poston. “Written from memo^ of the lost manuscript of a drama play to 'niilch 
Olot>« others contributed. Slost of its action is in Wyoming, Garrison society, 
soldiers and Sioux Indians, make the scene brilliantly descriptive of army life. The 
plot is somewhat sensational but it is entertaining every moment. 

Orezonian “ A story of modern Indian warfare and modern love affairs in a Wyo* 
nilng fort, and is full of interest, and lively interest.” 

Mllwaulcee “A typical King story, entirely in his customary vein and fully as in- 
J»nrnal teresting as any he has written: well constructed and full of admir- 

able incidents. Captain King makes this story the mtdium of a defense of the army 
method of dealing with Indians, or rather a criticism on the Government system df 
treating the wards of a nation and, indeed, he makes out a strong case for the army.” 

Weeltly “Done with his acknowledged skill. The work Is probably one of the 

Wlsconain best of the many army stories that he has given the reading world. 
Breezy and exciting throughout. 

Pcmver “Pleasant reading, pure and wholesome. While the plot of this tale is 

Republican not materially different from the others of this writer, it holds the 
Interest of the reader, and the garrison tragedies, love scenes and comedies are painted 
with the brush of one who sketches from life, and few writers excel Captain King le 
the realistic picture of battle scenes.” 

• 

For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent on receipt of Price by the Publisher^ 

F. TENNYSON NF-w.ToV chlcaffo, New York, 




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Paper, (Neely’s Popular Library,) - - 25 « 


Over 1,000,000 copies of this popular and valuable book have been sold. A 
most comprehensive work, giving all the minute details pertaining 
to its subject. Contains hints and suggestions from the best housewives 
of our land. An indispensable adjunct to every culinary department. 



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999.999 FACTS OF USE 

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Neely’s Popular Library, J?6c. 


This is an invaluable book of ready reference, applicable to almost every 
possible Industrial and domestic requirement. It gives information enabling 
one to meet every-day emergencies intelligently and promptly. Compiled 
from the best medical and other authorities. So indexed that any required 
item can be instantly found. No other similar book in the market to com- 
pare with it for efficiency and value. 


i' For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent on receipt of Price by the Publisher, 
I' F. TENNYSON NEELY, Chicago, New York. 



The King In Yellow* 


Bv ROBERT W CHA^JIBERS- 


Bdward The author is a {renius without a living eqnaL 

Ellis so far as I am aware, in his peculiar tieid. It 

is a masterpiece. . » . I have read many portions sev- 
eral times, captivated by the unapproachable tints of tha 
painting. None but a genius of the highest order could 
do such work.” 

N. Y. Commercial “ The short prose tale should be a syn- 

Advertiser tliesis : it was the art of Ndgar Poe, 

it is the art of Mr. Chambers. . . . His is beyond ques- 
tion a gloiious heritage. ... I fancy the book will 
create a sensation ; . . . in any case it is the most 
notable contribution to literature which has come from an 
American pu'^)lisher for many years ; arul line as the ac- 
complishment is, ‘ The Kingin Yellow ’ is large in promise. 
One has a right to expect a great deal from an author ol 
this calibre.” 

Times- “The most eccentric little volume of its (little) 
Herald day. ‘The Kiiig in Yellow ’ is subtly fascinat- 
ing, and compels attention for its style and its wealth oi 
strange, imaginative force." 

New York “Mr. Robert W. Chambers does net have a 
Times system to work up to ; he has no fad. save a 

tendency to writs about thcmarVelous and the impossible: 
painting pictures of I’omance that liavo a wild inspiration 
about them. Descriptive powers of no mean quality are 
perceptible m this volume of stories." 


The N. Y. “Mr. Chambers has a great command of 

World words ; he is a good painter. His situations 

are most delicately touched, and som^s of his descriptions 
are exquisite. He writes like an artist. He uses cciors 
rather than ideas. . . . The best drama in the volume 
means madness. The tenderest fancy is a sad mirage. 
. . . ‘The King in Yellow' is a very Interesting contri- 
bution to the present fund of materlo -mysticism . . , 
To read Mr. Chambers’ little book is to escape from the ac- 
tual on poetical wings.” 

IWimtcapolis “They have a mysterious, eerie air about 

Tribur.e them that is apt to stimulate the reader's 

curiosity.'’ 

Pbiladcipliia “Ch.arming, delicate, skillful, vivid.'’ 

Times 


Philadelphia “Expected to make a sensation, char min g, 
Hem full of color and delicately tinted.” 

Cleveland “ It is wondrous sti’ong. dramatic, full of color, 
Gazette weird, uncanny, picturesque, and yet a gem 

of exquisite coloring, dreamy, sym>x;iic. exciting. 

Detroit ‘ 'The King iii Yed-:.-??- cornpeis attention,” 
Jouriiai 


Denver ‘••'Prented tr r. rnn^t fascinating 

Times mysterious powurful ; ’ 


buckram, 0i5f 


QILT TOP, 75 CENTS. 

2' know of . othing in the book line that equals Neely’s 
Prismatic Library for elegance and careful sclectior. It 
sets a pace that others will not easily equal and our- 
pass.”— E. A. ROBINSON. 

50AP BUBBLES. Max Nordau. Brilliant, 
fascinating, intensely interesting. 
BIJOU’S COURTSHIPS, “ Gp.” From the 
French, by Katherine di Zerega. Ulus. 

NOBLE BLOOD and A WEST POINT PAR- 
ALLEL. By Capt. Charles King and 
Ernst Von Wildenbruch, of the German 
Army. 

TRUMPETER FRED. Capt. Charles King, 
U. S. A. Author of “ Fort Frayne,” “An 
Army Wife,” etc. Full-page illustrations. 

THE KING IN YELLOW. By the Author of 
“In the Quarter.” It is a masterpiece. . . 
' have read many portions several times, 
<:aptivated by the unapproachable tints of 
ihe painting. None but a genius of the 
highest order could do such work. — 
Edward Ellis. 

IN THE QUARTER. By the Author of “ the 
King in Yellow.” “Well written, 
vivid; the ending is highly dranr»atic.” 
Boston Times, 

FATHER STAFFORD. Anthony Hopu. 
Author of “The Prisoner of Zenda.” 

*' ‘Father Stafford’ is quite the best thing Hope has done 
so far, if I except one or two scenes from the “Dolly 
Dialogues.”— JOHN OLIVER HOBBES. 

AN ART FAILURE. John W. Harding. A 
story of the Latin Quarter as it is. More 
than fifty illustrations. 

For sale everywhere or sent postpaid on receipt 
of trice by the publisher, 

F. TENNYSON NEEL/, 

114 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, 



BiJOU’S GcURT8H!P8. 

From the French of “Gyp.” 

Trandaied by Katherine Berry di Zirhia^ with 
full-page draxoings by S. B. Aspell. 


Neely’s Prismatic Library, Gilt Top, 75 Cents. 


I’ll say one thing for your “ Gyp ’’ book — 
ehat it repays close reading, every sen- 
tence being a studied bit of effect, and that 
in this respect one of the latter-day and ar- 
tistic French novels, no matter how light, 
puts to shame our sprawling English ro- 
V*ances. I haven’t seen the original text, 
but if it is much lighter and brighter than 
this version, it must be perfection indeed. 

Mile. Bijou really took me in at thii be- 
ginning. I never saw a character so well 
disguised by the author. Until half way 
through the book I thought, like all her 
satellites and kindred, that she was too good 
and sweet and guileless for this wicked 
world. My final conclusion is that Becky 
SLa'p was a dunce and Forget-me-not a 
saint beside this artless little fiend— who 
parts husbands and wives, drowns her 
teacher, kills an actress, breaks up a dozen 
men (and boys) and finally marries an old 
man after herself seeing that his whole 
fortune is settled upon her. She is a crea- 
tion, and if of a little heavier weight would 
live in literature. 

The book ought to make its way on its 
merits. Faithfully yours, 

EDMUND C. STEDMAN. 


For sale everywhere or sent, postpaid, on receipt 
of price by the publisher, 

F. TENNYSON NEE!;;. 114 5th A»e„ New York. 


i'i *' ^ A.>*> A AottkA .<^ 


CAPTAIN CHARLES KING’S 
WORKS. 


Captain King is acknowledged to be with- 
out a peer in his chosen field, which he indus- 
triously cultivates. There has for some years 
been a steadily increasing demand for his 
army stories, and if it were put to a vote to- 
day, as to the most popular Ameriean novelist, 
the name of Captain King would undoubtedly 
be found among the leaders. 


TRUMPETER FRED/' 

Cloth^ 75c* 

ARMY WIFE/' 

Cloth^ $L25* 

^^FORT FRAYNE," 

Cloth, $1*25; Paper, 50a 

'^A GARRISON TANGLE," 

Goth, $L25* 

''NOBLE BLOOD and A WEST 
POINT PARALLEL," 

Goth, 75c* 

sa^ff />■” (ill Booksellers^ or sent on receipt o/ 
Price by the Publishe7\ 

F. TENNYSON NEELY, 


114 Fifth Avenue, 


New York. 


Remarks by Bill Nye 



The Funniest o! Books 

• • 


“It will cure the blues quicker 
than the doctor and at half the 
price.’’— iVtfw York Herald. 


Over 500 Pages 
150 Illustrations 

Octavo Cloth, $1*50 


Also' 


Enameled Hercules 
Manilla Covers, 


50Ge 


..Laugh and Grow Fat.. 

A collection of the best writings of this great author, most 
profusely illustrated, with over 500 pages. It is the funniest 
of books. Bill Nye needs no introduction. The mention of 
the book is enough. 

“I have passed through an earthquake and an Indian out- 
break, but I would rather ride an earthquake without saddle or 
bridle, than to bestride a successful broncho eruption .” — Bill Nye. 

“Age brings caution and a lot of shop-worn experience, 
purchased at the highest market price. Time brings vain 
regrets and wisdom teeth that can be left in a glass of water 
over night .” — Bill Nye. 


SPARKS FROM THE PEN OF BILL NYE. 192 Pages. Paper. 25cts. 
POEMS-James Whitcomb Riley. YARNS-BIII Nye. 203 Pafle*. ] paper, 25ctl 

For sale by all Booksellers, or sent on receipt of Price by the Publisher, 
F. TENNYSON NEELY, Chicago, New York. 

13 



FATHER STAFFORD 

BY ANTHONY HOPE. 

The Most Remarkable of Mr. Hope’s Stories. 


Minneapolis “ This story is in the genuine Hoi)e stylo 

Tribune and for that reason will he widely read.” 

Public liedger, “ ‘ Father Stafford ” is extremely clever, 

Philadelphia a bold privateer venturing upon the 

high seas.” 


San Francisco “ It is a good story, the strong parts of 
Chronicle which are the conflict between love and 

conscience on the part of a young Anglican priest. The 
charm of the book, however, lies in the briskness of the dia- 
logue, which is as finely finished as any of Hope’s novels.” 
Nashville ‘‘ ‘Father Stafford’ is a charming story. The 
Banner whole book sustains the reputation that An- 

thony Hope has made, and adds another proof that as a 
portrayer of characters of sharp distinctness and individ- 
uality, he has no superior.” 

Evening: ‘‘ A writer of great merit. . . . Mr. Hope’s 

Wisconsin work has a quality of straightforwardness 
that recommends it to readers who have grown tired of 
the loaded novel.” 


Phillipsburg: “ This is considered by his critics to be one 

Journal of the strongest, most beautiful and in- 

teresting novels Mr. Hope has ever written. There is not 
a dull line in the entire volume.” 


Amusement “The dialogue is bright and worldly, and 
Gazette the other characters do not suffer because 

so prominent is the hero ; they are well drawn, and quite 
out of the ordinary.” 

Vanity, ‘‘A very interesting narrative, and Mr. Hope 
New York tells the story after that fashion which he 
would seem to have made peculiarly his own.” 

Kansas City ‘‘There is something more than the romance 

Journal of the action to hold the reader’s mind. It 

is one of the author’s best productions.” 

Every Saturday, ‘‘Anthony Hope is a master of dialogue, 
Elgin, 111. and to his art in this particular is due 

the enticing interest which leads the reader on from page 
to page.” 

Hebrew ‘‘The strife between the obligation of a vow of 
Standard celibacy and the promptings of true love are 
vividly portrayed in this little book. . . . It contains an 
admirable description of English country life, and is well 
written.” 

Boston Daily ‘‘ It has enough of the charm of the au- 

Globe thor’s thought and style to identify it as 

characteristic, and make it very pleasing.” 

Buckram, Gilt Top. Retail, 75 Cents. 


IN THE QUARTER, 

BY ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. 

Author of “ The King in Yellow,** 


PRESS NOTICES: 

KevT^Tork **It is a story of life in Paris. . . that nas 
World good descriptions of dramatic sceiies.’* 

Book Buyer, “It is a story of a man who tried to reccn- 
New York cile irreconcilable facts. . . Mr. Cham* 

bers tells it with a happy choice of words, thus putting ‘ to 
proof the art alien to the artists. . . It is not a book for 
the unsophisticated, yet its morality is high and unmis- 
takable. . 

Brooklyn Citizen “ Pull of romantic incidents. , ,*’ 
Boston Courier “Interesting novel of French life. . .** 
Boston “Astory of student life written with dash , ,** 
Traveller and surety of handling. , 

Boston “Well written, bright, vivid; the ending is 
Times higMy dramatic.” 

New York “ Charming story of Bohemian Ufa, with its 

Sunday World buoyancy, its romance, and its wild Joy of 

youth . . , vividly depicted in this graceful tale by one 
who, like Daudet, knows his Paris. Some pages are ex- 
quisitely beautiful.”; 

Philadelphia “Idyllic— charming. Mr. Chambers’ story 

Bulletin is delicately told.” 

N. Y. Evening “It is a good story in its way. It Is good 

Telegram in several ways. There are glimpses of 

the model and of the grisette— all daxnty enough. The 
most of It might have come from so severe a moralist as 
George Eliot or even Bayard Taylor. . .” 

N.iY. Commercial “A very vivid and touchingly told story. 
Advertiser The tale is interesting because it re« 

fleets with fldelity the life led by certain sets of art 
students. A genuine ronSance, charmingly told.*' 
Congregationalist, “Vivid, realistic. There Is much of 
Boston nobility in it. A decided and excel- 

lent moral influence. It is charmingly vrritten from cover 
to cover. . .” 

Vogue, “ The author is to be congratulated on the lit«r- 

New York ary skill shown in what is reported to be hi? 
first attempt at novel writing, his characterization being 
especially clever. The author treats his theme with a re- 
finement that softens, but does not gloss over, the excesses 
of temptations that beset youths ; and he shows himse lf 
k-duly observant of everyday life of the Latin Quarter. . ,** 
Cloth, $1.25. Paper, 50 Cents. 


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The National is distinctively an American Magazine. It presents 
only subjects that are foremost in current American interest. Every 
number contains five or six profusely illustrated articles, several of the 
most readable short stories published, and the regular living fashion 
department and literary notes. 

Thc Announctwents fo« 1397 Include the 
Followinq Ulustrateu Serials: 

Some Recollections of the Century, 

By Dr. Edw.\rd Everett Hale. There are few men living to-day 
who have been so intimately associated with significant American per- 
sonalities, places and movements as Dr. Kale ; and there is perhaps no 
one man who can write so interestingly on them. So well known a 
writer as lie requires no further introduction to insure the popularity 
of his forthcoming articles. 

Christ and His Time. 

By Dallas Lore Sharp. The most remarkable magazine serial of 
the year and the only one ever published on the subject. It is being 
read in thousands of homes. It is an intensely interesting history of 
the W'orld’s greatest personality, written for the average magazine 
reader. The illustrations are from the famous religious paintings of 
the world. 

The Story of an Armenian Refugee, 

This story will be the first illustrated article on the recent Armenian 
massacres to appear in any magazine. Their causes and results, as 
well as the scenes of their enactment, will be described interestingly 
for the average reader. The writer is himself an Armenian, who es- 
caped from the country during the Turkish treacheries. He brought 
Avith him a number of photographs, Vvhich are to be reproduced in the 
Inational for the first liuie. 

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